Kionix, a supplier of MEMS-based inertial sensors for mobile products and consumer electronics, has revealed the 9-axis Sensor Fusion sensor solution. The new solution is a scalable, optimized and flexible solution that can be used to address the development challenges of low power motion-based products.
The single platform Sensor Fusion software can be scaled across operating systems, and across various sensor combinations. The sensor combinations across which the platform can be used are: accelerometer and gyroscope (AG), accelerometer and magnetometer (AM) and accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope (AMG). This flexibility allows customers to use the platform for numerous product lines even if their hardware configurations differ. From fixed-point, embedded RTOS microprocessors to 32-bit floating mobile phone operating systems, the Sensor Fusion platform can be used. Furthermore, the platform can be used for processing data in application processors and embedded microcontrollers as well.
The solution includes power management systems to aid designers in managing the data processing and sensor interaction with the lowest overhead, leading to unmatched power-performance for the AM (accelerometer and magnetometer) configuration in smartphones. Kionix will be disclosing the documented source code as well as the right with the sensors which includes the bias calibration, the sensor compensation algorithms, power management, user interface API and the Sensor Fusion software.
Using the Kionix Sensor Fusion, designers will be able to correct, calibrate and compensate any anomalies, they can effectively manage the power-draw of the sensor to increase the battery life of the product and also be able to block or prevent the interference among the various sensors.
The Vice President – Engineering at Kionix, Scott Miller stated that a solution like Sensor Fusion is necessary to develop mobile consumer electronics. Furthermore, the Kionix solution can be optimized further to support third-party software development.