Sharp Showcases Wireless Camera System for Home Monitoring

Sept. 13, 2006
Freescale's RF Transceiver Enables Low-Power Wireless Communication in Home Security System

Consumers can more easily monitor home visitors with Sharp Corporation's wireless camera system called "Living Door Scope" that uses Freescale Semiconductor's (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) low power wireless solutions. Showcased today in Tokyo at Freescale's Technology Forum, the new security product from Sharp leverages the MC13192 IEEE(R) 802.15.4-compliant, 2.4-GHz RF transceiver from Freescale.

Sharp's Living Door Scope HN-D100 (desktop type)/HN-D150 (wall-hanging type) is a wireless camera system adhered to a door that shoots videos of visitors and transmits them to a dedicated color monitor in another room. This system transfers video from a camera to the monitor via wireless communication, eliminating wires to help ensure easy deployment. By using this low-power wireless communication method, the door camera provides long battery life.

"Delivering a smaller solution with wireless freedom opens up a new class of home security products," said Brett Black, commercial wireless manager for Freescale Semiconductor. "A wireless camera that can fit into the palm of your hand is a true innovation. As more and more of our customers serving the home automation market look to wireless solutions to deliver these 'best-in-class' products, Freescale continues to focus on providing a low power, easy to install solution."

Consumers in the past have been forced to choose between a wired camera system, requiring construction work and cabling, or a wireless camera system, which includes a big monitoring camera that checks visitors visually in another room. Using Freescale's IEEE-compliant MC13192 RF transceiver, consumers can easily attach a small camera at the door to view visitors at any time, which is less cumbersome and costly.

Freescale's MC13192 is a low-power and small form-factor 2.4-GHz RF transceiver supplied in the QFN-32 package. It incorporates a physical layer (PHY) modem designed in accordance with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard supporting the star and mesh network topologies. The MC13192 combined with a microcontroller creates a stand-alone transceiver conforming to the 802.15.4 MAC standard.

The MC13192 provides a cost-efficient solution for near-field data link and networking. It uses a four-line SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) to interface with the microcontroller. The combination of MC13192, microcontroller and software allows a variety of applications from a simple point-to-point system to a large-scale network.

In addition to Sharp's Living Door Scope, Freescale will demonstrate various systems supporting home security applications such as security glass, lighting and door sensors at its Technology Forum in Tokyo.