The MATRIX Creator is an IoT-Ready Dev Board for the Raspberry Pi 3

The newly-unveiled MATRIX Creator is a $99 sensor-packed dev board that enables users to build IoT apps quickly and inexpensively for drones, robots, smart homes, security, gaming, retail, and whatever other idea they imagine.

Designed for Raspberry Pi 3, MATRIX Creator replaces common hardware for custom applications, eliminates complicated wiring, and simplifies packaging. Moreover, it is the recent recipient of the Editor’s Choice award at National Maker Faire 2016 in Washington, D.C. and was highlighted as “one of the most promising pieces of hardware,” by Make: Magazine.

“There are 8 million Raspberry Pi’s in the world, fueled by thousands of developers working towards a common goal, invention and hands-on learning. We believe that machine intelligence should be seamless in the global creation of IoT solutions,” explains Rodolfo Saccoman, CEO of MATRIX Labs.

In terms of hardware, the MATRIX Creator is based on a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA and an Atmel ATSAM3S2C Cortex-M3 MCU. The disc-shaped add-on for the Raspberry Pi features a sensor-rich dev platform with a full suite of short-range wireless radios, including ZigBee, Thread, Z-Wave and IR support. It even includes an NFC reader.

The Raspberry Pi daughter board, MATRIX Creator, provides the most embedded sensors on the market and enters the Maker world as:

The first Raspberry Pi add-on with support for NFC, Z-Wave, ZigBee and Thread on the same board.

The first Microphone Array for Raspberry Pi.

The first IR remote receiver/transmitter add-on for Raspberry Pi.

The first Raspberry Pi daughter board with ARM Microcontroller + Xilinx FPGA.

Meanwhile, the MATRIX OS allows developers to create apps within minutes using Javascript. It empowers users with the ability to combine numerous hardware applications, M2M communications, and an ever-growing amount of integrations to make hardware creation easier. Furthermore, developers are able to leverage flexible MATRIX machine intelligence and computer vision libraries including face detection, face recognition, and gesture recognition, with more detection algorithms soon to come.

“If you can use Javascript, you can start making Internet of Things applications on the MATRIX OS platform. Apps can run in homes or businesses and developers can monetize installs, or build incredible service-based businesses implementing apps for clients. Imagine bringing your smart home with you to any MATRIX OS enabled environment, from friend’s houses to AirBnB’s. This is a brand new app economy anchored in the physical world,” says Sean Canton, MATRIX Platform Architect.