Insyde Software: News: Customer Case Studies: IBM/Scinetic

When the Retail Division of IBM and Scinetic Corporation teamed up to develop and market intelligent shopping cart technology, they called on Insyde Software to help get the project rolling. The new technology is accessed via a small tablet that sits on a shopping cart and can be configured to perform such functions as displaying a running total of a customer's purchases, enabling customers to order from the deli without waiting in line, and scanning items as they are placed in the cart for a faster checkout.

Because the device, called the IBM Personal Shopping Assistant or the Shopping Buddy (right), is battery operated, power management was an especially important element of its design. The keyboard controller in the unit remains powered at all times because it must monitor the power button that turns the unit on. To prolong the battery life and therefore the usefulness of the device, it is imperative that the keyboard controller draw very low current when the unit is turned off.

Having worked with Insyde before, both IBM and Scinetic felt comfortable sub-contracting Insyde engineers to develop the Shopping Buddy's BIOS and embedded keyboard controller firmware as well as help out with board bring-up. Insyde engineers became an integral part of Scinetic's development team, working both onsite and remotely to get the job done.

One of Insyde's most significant contributions to the project was in the area of power management. Initially, the keyboard controller was drawing close to 100 mAmps of current when the unit was powered down. Insyde engineers helped Scinetic to configure the keyboard controller to go into the lowest possible power state when the unit was powered down and still be able to wake up and turn the unit on when the power button was pressed. Together, they were able to reduce the amount of current drawn by the keyboard controller in the device's powered-down state to just a few mAmps.

Part of Insyde's contract included training Scinetic's engineers on the code they developed: how it worked, how to modify it, and how to maintain it. Insyde also provided a second line of support to IBM for the duration of the project.

The Shopping Buddy is now in trial at select Stop and Shop stores in Massachusetts. For more information about these clients, visit: