Rugged Tablets And Portable Devices: Solutions For Your Commercial Needs

Rugged tablets and portable devices offer an extensive number of solutions across a broad range of commercial and industrial needs.

Whereas consumer-grade mobile devices are well-suited to everyday use in homes, schools, and offices, rugged tablets are especially designed for harsh and demanding environments. The number of trades and professions where rugged tablets and portable devices are required are considerable, including:

• Medical devices
• Military, government, security, and law enforcement
• Energy, oil, and gas (including in explosive environments requiring intrinsically safe circuitry)
• Instrumentation, test, and measurement
• Logistics and transportation (including automotive, locomotive, marine, and aviation)
• Construction and trades
• Manufacturing
• Agriculture

Electronic devices deployed by these industries share a number of characteristics that influence device design. They must:

• Withstand and fully operate through prolonged vibrations, accidental drops, and direct impact to each side edge of the device
• Be impervious to dust, dirty, water, and other liquid contaminates
• Operate over extreme temperatures, in very hot and very cold environments
• Often be used in direct sunlight or extreme darkness, requiring displays that can easily be read and controlled for these light levels
• Often be operated with thick gloves, which typically requires specialized touchscreens
• Sometimes require custom equipment interfaces that are not integrated into common consumer tablet devices
• Be certified to meet operational and safety requirements within specific industries
• Be available for purchase in a constant known configuration for many years, to ensure they continue to meet certifications

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/rugged-tablets-and-portable-devices-solutions-for-your-commercial-needs/

Military use of COTS Android Devices – bad idea!

There is no doubt that leveraging the technologies that a soldier is comfortable using makes sense. We are all accustomed to having our cell phones and tablets with us at all times, providing us the key information we need to accomplish our tasks. Why shouldn’t our military service personnel have the same capabilities? They should! But…does it make sense to have them use consumer rated devices for their mission. No!

The military’s mission is quite unique. The men and women that rely on technology to accomplish their military missions are exposed to very different environments that the rest of us going about our normal day. These impact both the soldiers and their equipment. Some are obvious, such as environmental concerns- jolting shock and vibration, extreme temperatures (both frigid and desert), dust and sand, wet and humid, and salt exposure from seawater, all of which can quickly damage an unsealed device. Touchscreens often fail when used with gloved hands. While a consumer grade Android tablet or phone may work in 80% of soldier environments, that isn’t good enough. Soldiers need to know that they can rely on their portable devices anytime, anywhere.

Perhaps more importantly, recent articles have described security vulnerabilities in consumer Android devices and apps installed on them. These vulnerabilities can expose a soldier’s position, and therefore endanger the soldier’s life and the mission.

A common practice, as described in an article written by Susan Crabtree for The Washington Free Beacon titled, “Cybersecurity Experts: Stop Sending Troops Into Combat With Personal Tablets, Smartphones,” is for soldiers to upload military apps to their smartphones and tablets for use in the field. Some mapping applications installed on these devices have vulnerabilities that allow them to be hacked.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/military-use-of-cots-android-devices-bad-idea/

Planning a Rugged Mobile Device Development

While Return on Investment (ROI) is a major consideration when choosing a rugged Android tablet to be used in the field, calculating that ROI must take into account the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the device. An off the shelf tablet may seem to have an attractive price point, but shortcomings such as functionality, ingress protection (IP) rating, ruggedness, usability, and lack of long term availability can significantly skew the ROI and TCO calculation for an off-the shelf vs. a custom tablet design. Considerations like TCO and ROI often involve nonobvious considerations.

Rugged must be designed for use in industry-specific environments by providing users with the right tools, access and user experience from the device to the application. That means starting with a detailed and well explored understanding of user needs, tablet use cases, and the environment of deployment.

Development Process Considerations

Computing power, OS, interoperability, connectivity and application compatibility must be determined through the lens of who, where, when and, how the device will be used. For example, companies must consider the changes in OS that are happening such as the rise of Android and the decline of Microsoft OS in mobile devices other than laptops. This was the focus of a recent Information Age articlediscussing Microsoft’s announcement of stopping support for Windows 10 Mobile this year (2018).

This has led to Android becoming the top contender for an operating system compatible with the rugged environment. But there are many other questions that a business must ask to develop a sound rugged device development roadmap.

• How where and when do you plan to use the rugged devices?
• Which business operations must they support?
• What features and applications must it support?
• What unique interfaces and equipment are required to meet the application?
• How much control is required over the configuration and updates of the operating system and application software?
• What are the connectivity and wireless access needs?
• What are the security concerns and requirements?
• What are the timetables for needed use and how does that intersect with the development timeline?
• Must the software environment be modified to meet application and regulatory requirements?
• What industry, safety, and government regulations and certifications are required, and how do these requirements impact the design and implementation of the device?

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/planning-rugged-mobile-device-development/

The Importance of Rugged Tablets in the Manufacturing Supply Chain

Today, every manufacturing sector deals with an extremely broad supply chain that is often global and often deals with a lack of reliable, real-time data access in the field. This inherent lack of end-to-end integration can be partially bridged by technologies such as cloud-based software access, RFID, IoT and others. Having the ability to access the data from these technologies in real-time in the field requires a portable connected device such as a rugged tablet to deliver that reliable end-to-end integration under the most difficult conditions.

The challenges don’t end there as supply chain mobile device longevity is a pressing concern in the majority of manufacturing sectors where use routinely happens under punishing conditions. Deploying a mobile device for industrial use requires significant development, test, and often certification testing. Once complete, the resulting device must be capable of being built and deployed over the long term to avoid expensive redesign and retest. Oil & gas, mining, and the broader energy industry are just three major examples where managing assets in the field requires a device capable of delivering real-time access in harsh environments to make production and operations efficient and cost effective.

From drill sites to fleet transportation and all points in between, managing assets for oil and gas, mining and the broader energy production industries requires around-the-clock access to real-time information resources, and an industrial Android tablet must be able to perform under harsh conditions like extreme heat and cold as well as punishing physical environments.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/importance-rugged-tablets-manufacturing-supply-chain/

Basic Principles Of Handheld Mobile Device Design

Tablets (tablet computers) and similar handheld mobile devices such as smartphones and e-readers are now increasingly in use both for the mainstream public as well as throughout industry. Custom mobile electronic devices are often designed and deployed for specific field applications. These devices have overlap in their features and capabilities. Understanding the principles and features of handheld mobile device design is critical for successful deployment.

In preparation for designing a new handheld mobile device, it is important to analyze the requirements of the user as well as the unique use cases of the device within its specialized niche. Beyond portability, what are the requirements of a handheld tablet device design?

The fundamental goal for a handheld computing device is to merge a good user experience (UX) with the features and design characteristics that easily enable its application use while operating in difficult environments. Handheld mobile devices commonly feature a display, touchscreen and/or buttons for user interaction, a battery, a rugged enclosure, and often wireless communications or ports for plugging in cables that allow for external communications. These elements must be integrated together in a way that enables functionality without being too heavy or bulky.

Some further details to consider include the following:

Miniature screens designed with the user in mind: The small-sized screens must fulfill a number of criteria, which focus on the hand, finger, and eye. This means:

• All text must be easily read and all images and video must be easily viewed over a broad range of lighting conditions, from pitch black through indoor lighting levels, and often in direct sunlight.
• Touchscreens must correctly detect touches and swipes whether by bare or gloved fingers, in dry and wet environments.

Peripherals that do the job: Each device is designed for a purpose, perhaps to sense its environment or to communicate information with a remote server. The mobile device must include the proper circuitry and interfaces to enable the application, and be seamlessly integrated electrically, mechanically, and with supporting software.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/basic-principles-handheld-mobile-device-design/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web : https://www.inhand.com/
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

InHand Introduces Its Third Generation Rugged Tablet – The Hydra-Q6™

InHand Electronics proudly announces our third generation platform for custom tablet and display applications. The Hydra-Q6™ tabletincorporates the rugged features of our Hydra line of tablets with a flexible architecture for quickly prototyping and deploying your optimal tablet solution. InHand can provide customization to allow you to get to market with a branded/unique tablet incorporating your specific product requirements. The Hydra-Q6 is based on the proven NXP quad-core i.MX 6 ARM processor.

Packaging for the Hydra-Q6 can customized for tablet, kiosk, display head, Human-Machine Interface (HMI), panel PC, or any type of portable devices. The rugged tablet features the i.MX 6 processor, memory, flash storage, USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth BLE, battery with charger and fuel gauge, sensors including accelerometer and magnetometer, GPS, digital microphone, speakers, and more. A variety of signals can be brought out to an expansion connector enabling the interfaces you require. Functions such as NFC, CAN, magnetic card readers, and custom interfaces can easily be added.  

The Hydra-Q6 tablet features a 7 inch high resolution LCD with resistive touchscreen, MIL-SPEC rugged waterproof enclosure, waterproof connectors, rugged buttons and expansion connector, ambient light sensor, and rugged DC power jack. The tablet can easily be customized with other interfaces, wireless radios, antennas, alternate displays (including different sizes, resolutions, and brightness), capacitive touch, enclosure form-factor and color, private labeling, custom mounts and docks, and more.

InHand’s Modified COTS approach allows us to quickly modify its circuitry, external connections, operating system, enclosure, and look/feel of the tablet to meet your exact requirements in a quick and cost effective manner. Whether the customization is to remove features to cost reduce the solution or add application unique features, InHand has more than likely done it before! Our experience reduces your time to market, cost and risk.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/inhand-introduces-its-third-generation-rugged-tablet-the-hydra-q6/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web : https://www.inhand.com/
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

The Importance of an IP67 or IP68 Rating for Your Rugged Tablet

Whether it’s for manufacturing, field use or any other harsh environment, having the best rugged tablet available that can withstand dust, dirt, moisture and physical abuse is paramount. Since dust and moisture can wreak havoc with electronics, the IP Rating is an important consideration when choosing the right mobile computer. But what exactly is the IP rating and how does it affect ruggedness?

Informally referred to as ‘ingress protection,’ the IP Code, or formally the International Protection marking is the performance and safety rating standard set by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for electronic devices. IP ratings play a key role in industrial and rugged mobile computing environments as they set the standard measurement for dust and water ingress into an electronic device. In other words, it specifies the level of protection required from foreign bodies and liquid.

While the IP standards for ingress protection, the two digits following it reflect the scale of protection that the device brings in two classification areas. The first digit reflects the protection from solid objects while the second digit reflects protection from liquids. The higher the number of each digit, the greater the level of protection. Since there are applications where the one or the other of the classifications does not apply, they can be replaced by an X, such as IPX6.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/the-importance-of-an-ip67-or-ip68-rating-for-your-rugged-tablet/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

How Efficient and Reliable is Your Medical Grade Tablet?

Mobile digital access via a medical grade tablet has become a high priority for healthcare organizations in 2018. This can be seen in the fact that 79.8 percent use tablets and 42.6 percent use smartphones to access the information needed to provide and coordinate care. This is according to a new HIMSS Analytics study of 129 C-suite executives, IT professionals, clinicians and department heads.

A closer look at the needs of the healthcare continuum when it comes to digital mobility shows complex variable environment conditions and specialized use case needs of the healthcare environment. Often, mobile digital tools for medical applications require a level of ruggedness and customized functions that commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices cannot provide.

The requirements of medical grade tablets and other medical devices are broad and challenging to meet. Today’s customizable approaches for mobile tablet technology provide a level of reliability, security, ruggedness, and agility required in the medical industry.

Time management and ability to get the job done in wide ranging environments is critical for all healthcare personnel. Having a versatile medical-focused rugged tablet computer increases efficiency and maximized patient care.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/how-efficient-and-reliable-is-your-medical-grade-tablet/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

Industrial Tablets and Their Role in Automation Industry

Manufacturing 4.0 has ushered in levels of automation that require seamless management, monitoring and operation of machines (including machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and the industrial internet of things (IIoT)). Technology like automation and the IIoT are the foundation of smart factories. Industrial tablet technology is critical for production line workers, service technicians, quality engineers, and others in enabling real time, mobile-based operations.

In highly regulated manufacturing industries, production machinery and systems need to be regularly calibrated to stay in compliance. Manufacturers are starting to use mobile-based sensors to capture this data and report it in real time. A rugged industrial tablet enables workers to immediately receive alerts, analyze data, connect to machinery and sensors both with cables and wirelessly, and in general enable real time diagnosis and management of manufacturing operations while improving efficiency and safety, and eliminating mistakes and rework.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/industrial-tablets-and-their-role-in-automation-industry/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

Custom Made Tablets: Tough from the inside out!

Custom-made tablets have the advantage of being tough from the inside out because the designs and features will have been specially manufactured for particular users, some of which involve the most demanding needs in the harshest environments. Additionally, custom-made tablets – such as custom medical tablets – must meet both brand manufacturer and end-user standards.

The qualities of tough, durable customizable tablets and custom rugged tablets will depend on the industry and the user. It is most likely that a primary feature such tablets will require will be a shock-proof housing that will keep the tablet functioning despite drops and heavy bumps. Such durability must also apply to a shatter-proof touch screen and display assembly. What’s more, rugged tablets must be impervious to environments that are commonly found in warehousing, logistics, manufacturing, and transportation. This means the tablet will need to be resistant to dusty and even moist and wet environments with extreme hot and cold temperatures.

Custom made tablets must meet the stringent standards of Original Equipment Manufacturers that produce the tablets and the rigorous needs of the user. This can include demanding applications in fields of medicine, law enforcement and security, military, and many industrial applications.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/custom-made-tablets-tough-from-the-inside-out/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

Lightweight and Portable, Custom Linux and Android Tablets can replace a laptop in many applications

The lightweight and portable nature of Linux and Android tablets make them ideal candidates to replace laptop computers in many mobile applications, particularly when the tablets can be customized to suit the needs of users.

Android and Linux Tablets are smaller and easy to carry and are perfect for cloud computing applications and Internet-based information sourcing and processing. In many instances, the benefits of using an Linux or Android Tablet are clear– particularly if customized or custom-made – to replace your laptop.

The reasons why Linux and Android Tablets are so ideal for replacing laptops are numerous. To begin, Tablets offer greater mobility due to the thin and lightweight nature of the devices. Linux and Android Tablets may lack some of the hardware and peripheral ports of a PC or laptop, but these potential shortcomings are easily overcome with an external wired or wireless device, software modifications, and customization. It simply depends on what you require your Tablet to do and what environment it will be exposed to.

Original Equipment Manufacturers of handheld portable devices and those seeking state-of-the-art custom designs of embedded circuitry boards, tablets, and rugged tablets, and custom software and engineering services will benefit from the industry leading expertise of InHand Electronics, Inc. InHand Electronics serves a broad range of industries, including utilities and transportation, industrial, Internet of things, aviation, medical, and military and defense.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/lightweight-portable-custom-linux-android-tablets-can-replace-laptop-many-applications/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

Portable Device Design – Custom-made for Military Grade

The ruggedness of common tablets and smartphones, such as those manufactured by Samsung and Apple, has improved in recent years. The addition of rubber overmold accessories enhances drop survival and the use of connectors and sealing techniques enhance water resistance. However, these devices, even within rugged outer casings, cannot meet the more demanding set of standards required by tablets and other portable devices for the military.

Military devices are used for a wide variety of applications. These include:

• UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), UGV (unmanned ground vehicle), and UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle)) deployment and control
• Real time personnel, vehicle, and equipment tracking and deployment
• GIS (geographic information system) mapping
• Mission planning command and control
• Real time situational awareness and analysis, including friendly and enemy force tracking
• Security and military police operations
• Field logistics and dispatch

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/portable-device-design-custom-made-military-grade/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

Key Differences That Make Medical Grade Tablets Different From Consumer Tablets

Medical grade tablets have a number of unique features and use cases as compared with consumer grade tablets. This often requires a custom tablet design that tightly integrates these features and assures high reliability, security, and privacy. Consumer grade tablets usually cannot meet FDA, HIPAA, and other regulatory requirements simply through software changes and a more rugged outer package.

When used for patient monitoring and care, medical tablets and other handheld medical devices must meet FDA-mandated requirements for safety, privacy, and reliability. This extra diligence ensures trust that the medical device will not harm the patient, securely stores data, and in general performs its functions as intended.

Here are some ways in which medical grade tablets differ from consumer grade tablets. Medical grade tablets and other medical devices:

• Utilize high quality components, often manufactured in ISO 13485 certified facilities, which enable the consistent and quality construction, and supply chain traceability, required of medical devices.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/key-differences-make-medical-grade-tablets-different-consumer-tablets/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com

The Biggest Challenges Faced In Planning Handheld Device Design

Portable handheld electronic devices such as computer tablets and smartphones continue to offer amazing features incorporated from mass-produced electronic technology. Sometimes, these commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices do not quite meet user needs. Perhaps they do not withstand tough environmental conditions, require a custom interface, or don’t meet regulatory requirements driven by specific application use cases. A custom designed handheld device may be necessary for these situations. There are major challenges faced when planning a custom handheld device design.

Portable handheld computing devices have a myriad of uses across many industries. Examples include medicine, military, security, law enforcement, field operations, instrumentation and measurement, entertainment, inventory management, warehousing, logistics, shipping, transportation, and retail. These applications demand feature-rich handheld electronic devices, preferably with the familiar user interfaces of analogous consumer devices, but also meet stringent use case requirements as well as budget constraints. It is a challenge to design and produce cost-effective custom handheld devices that meet operational needs.

Handheld device design is an area of excellence at InHand Electronics, an industry leader that specializes in the design of low-power embedded circuitry, systems, and software for original equipment manufacturers of handheld, Internet of Things (IoT), and wireless devices. Contact InHand for an evaluation of your custom handheld device concept.

View Original Source:- https://www.inhand.com/biggest-challenges-faced-planning-handheld-device-design/

Contact Details:

InHand Electronics, Inc.
30 West Gude Dr. Suite 550
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone No. : 240-558-2014
Web :www.inhand.com
Email : rfeldman@inhand.com