Benzinga | Mar 18, 2021 05:35AM EDT

Himax Announced its WE-I Plus AIoT Platform Received Microsoft Azure IoT PnP Certification

Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIMX) today announced its ultralow power WE-I Plus AIoT Platform has been listed in the Azure Certified Device Catalog after receiving Microsoft Azure IoT PnP certification.

"The Microsoft Azure IoT Platform and Himax WE-I Plus AIoT Platform collectively create a powerful tool for our customers to unleash their creativity," said Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer at Himax. "We bring to market a reliable, secure and long battery life edge AI product, and make it easier and faster than ever."

Ultralow Power WE-I Plus AIoT platform featuring NB-IoT for cloud connect

Himax WE-I Plus AIoT platform is composed of Himax's ultralow power WE-I Plus endpoint AI processor, always-on image sensor and computer-vision AI algorithm, along with a 3rd party NB-IoT module, all operating in ultralow power, to act as an edge AI device in the Azure IoT cloud service ecosystem. Under the designated working environment at the edge, Himax WE-I Plus AIoT platform detects motion by AoS image sensor, can carry out customized AI-use-case operations, such as person detection, face detection, face recognition and object detection, by WE-I Plus and then output secure metadata over NB-IoT protocol to the Azure IoT cloud for further statistical data processing and analysis. In such a scenario, the Himax WE-I Plus AIoT platform can operate with just 4 AA batteries for more than one-year lifetime. By comparison other IoT devices with the same battery capacity and event trigger frequency, which transmit raw data rather than metadata, may result in much shorter battery life, in some cases even less than one month.

"Himax is a valued collaborator in our mission to make Azure IoT platform the go-to platform for designers of smart, connected devices," said Sean Pien, Enterprise Commercial Lead at Microsoft Taiwan Corporation. "Moreover, Azure Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) accessed through WE-I Plus SDK tools integrates seamlessly with our Azure IoT platform, providing an easy and convenient means of connecting IoT endpoints and edge devices to the cloud."

Azure IoT PnP certified WE-I Plus AIoT platform featuring Azure RTOS for quick and seamless Azure IoT cloud access

The Azure RTOS perfectly suits those high-security and ultralow-power centric edge devices that need to connect with Azure IoT cloud. WE-I Plus AIoT platform embedded with the Azure RTOS SDK has been optimized and granted Azure IoT PnP certification, allowing developers to quickly and seamlessly trial their proofs-of-concept and deploy their AI expertise with Azure IoT cloud. The SDK of WE-I Plus AIoT platform contains Azure RTOS sample code, which includes ThreadX real-time operating system using compact memory footprint, NetX and NetX Duo TCP/IP networking stacks, IP layer security (IPsec) and socket layer security (TLS) protocols. Greater connectivity and extensive security are therefore assured.