ICS Showcases Innovation at embedded world North America
ICS turned heads at this year's embedded world North America show, held in Anaheim, CA last week. The buzz on the show floor was all about what happens when intelligence moves to the edge. And that's exactly where ICS took center stage. Packed with demos, our booth showcased the possibilities for a smarter, more connected future powered by AI at the edge.
"Everyone's talking about AI in general," said ICS CEO Peter Winston, "but embedding AI into the devices around us is what's truly reshaping how we live, work, and connect."
The Demos Everyone Was Talking About
"Our demos reflected the depth of our engineering expertise in AI/ML, UX and complex embedded systems," said ICS' Vice President of Engineering Jay Noble. "They weren't just proofs of concept — they were a glimpse into how we're redefining what's possible at the edge."
Cartoon Creator: AI That Thinks (and Paints) on the Edge
Our most popular demo stopped traffic — a real-time cartoon creator that turned attendees' photos into Ghibli-style portraits, bobblehead avatars and more. Visitors chose from a variety of styles, which compared inference running on embedded hardware, on-prem servers and in the cloud, and picked their favorite print to take home. (Surprise: Sora wasn't the winner.) Beyond the fun, it was a tangible showcase of AI performance, latency and efficiency across different edge environments. Art powered by engineering.
LIDAR Motion Tracking: Precision You Could See
With ICS' sleek interface and ILLIUM's AI agent, this clever demo tracked people moving in real time, showcasing edge-native intelligence in action: no cloud, no lag, just instant perception and spatial awareness built for next-gen robotics, industrial automation and smart cities.
Racing Robots: No Code, All Intelligence
Start your engines! Our Racing Robots demo showcased robots that were created and controlled without any custom code, but lots of machine vision and voice agents to make devices that see, hear and think locally.
Ride Command+: Embedded Performance on the Open Road
Our full-scale Indian Motorcycle Scout showcased the production Ride Command+ IVI system, a market-leading embedded platform engineered by ICS to deliver real-time data, connectivity and control in demanding automotive environments. Built on a robust Qt-based architecture and optimized for responsiveness and safety, the system integrates navigation, Bluetooth, diagnostics and infotainment through a seamless UX. On the show floor, it demonstrated how ICS brings together embedded software, HMI design and system integration to power next-generation, software-defined vehicles.
Embedded Design Meets Edge Intelligence
We also presented advanced tech for medical and industrial systems, from AI-assisted skin cancer detection to a smart glucose monitor that combined low-power microcontrollers with sleek, medical-grade interfaces.
Our HMI Accelerator showed how developers can jump from design to deployable code, quickly turning Figma designs into Qt/QML or Flutter prototypes. And our Hybrid HMI deployment demo, powered by SECO and MediaTek, proved that high performance and flexibility can coexist beautifully in complex embedded environments.
Together, these solutions demonstrated ICS' deep expertise across AI, UX and system-level integration, making sophisticated edge intelligence faster, safer and more scalable than ever.
Leading the Conversation
Beyond the booth, our experts presented popular talks tackling today's most urgent topics:
Reality Check on Deploying Computer Vision and LLMs at the Edge — separating hype from hardware-ready reality.
Enhancing UX on Embedded Devices Within Tight Constraints — design that feels limitless, even when hardware isn't.
Designing Voice Interfaces for Embedded Systems Amid Latency Challenges — blending local and cloud intelligence to overcome latency.
Understanding the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and Its Impact on Embedded Products — what global developers need to know about new cybersecurity rules.
"You can't build a device anymore without thinking about cybersecurity," said Peter Winston. "It's no surprise CRA compliance was a hot topic this year. Security-by-design is now just as essential as performance or UX."
Looking Ahead
As embedded world North America came to a close, one message stood out: the future of embedded intelligence is unfolding now, and ICS is helping to lead the way. The conversations, collaborations and discoveries from the show will continue to inspire our work as we push the boundaries of AI at the edge, UX and system-level design. Intelligent. Connected. Secure.
For more on ICS' perspective on embedded development, read Why It's Time to Stop Thinking in Terms of Devices and Start Thinking in Terms of Systems and Don't DIY Your Next Software Project: Why a Homebuilder Approach Wins.