#MEMS: "Six-axis sensor fuses accelerometer with magnetometer"

Single-chip e-compasses can be sluggish in operation, but by adding an accelerometer and digital-signal processor to perform the sensor fusion, this new model from Freescale claims to give super-fast response time that is dead-on accurate: R. Colin Johnson


Accelerometer and magnetometer data (left) is fused by embedded digital signal processor (DSP) functions (bottom) which conserves power in periods of inactivity.

Digital e-compasses typically fuse data from a magentometer and accelerometer in order to accurately determine heading and orientation, enabling location-based services for navigation, gaming and augmented reality (AR). By housing its magnetometer and accelerometer in the same package with a digital signal processor (DSP), enabling higher accuracy sensor fusion, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. hopes to capture a bigger share of the $1.5 billion market for e-compasses forecast by ABI Research by 2016.
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