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Friday, July 06, 2012

#ALGORITHMS: "Sensor Fusion Hubs Arrive"

Sensor fusions allows the accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, altimeters, temperature and proximity sensors in modern smartphones to be used together to analyze, auto-calibrate and cross-compensate for errors in raw outputs from each MEMS device. Motion-aware and location-based applications can use a sensor-fusion hub, which has its own independent "brain," to supply the application processor with total situational awareness--such as allowing the main app processor to turn itself off until a relevant event is sensed by the hub: R. Colin Johnson


MotionCore sensor fusion algorithms analyzes raw data outputs from accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, pressure-, and temperature-sensors (A, G, M, P, T, respectively) to off-load the MotionApps running on the application processor system-on-chip (SoC).

Here is what EETimes says about sensor fusion: An expanding suite of algorithms for fusing the outputs from Xtrinsic family of MEMS chips is designed to enable designers to develop sensor fusion algorithms from Freescale Semiconductor application notes or to license a sensor-hub software solution from motion algorithm specialists Movea Inc...Freescale if offering an expanded sensor toolbox for a fee, and engineers can also license a sensor hub solution from Movea that off-loads the application processor by running core algorithms on a separate Freescale ColdFire microcontroller...Movea is co-marketing its MotionCore sensor fusion platform with Freescale for use with its Coldfire microcontrollers, said Tim Kelliher, director of customer solution architectures at Movea (Pleasanton, Calif.) "By incorporating sensor fusion into our separate hub, instead of running sensor fusion algorithms on the application processor, designers can create motion-aware applications that are agnostic to hardware," Kelliher added in a statement.
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