Freescale Semiconductor has been awarded an Electronic Products’ Product of the Year award for its Freescale Xtrinsic eCompass software, which fuses data from Freescale Xtrinsic accelerometers and magnetometers to implement a highly accurate tilt-compensated electronic compass with full hard and soft iron calibration of magnetic disturbance.
Engineers integrating electronic compasses into smartphones and tablets have traditionally been faced with lengthy licensing negotiations with specialist providers of sensor fusion software and do not generally receive source code that can be compiled for their processor of choice. Freescale provides the Xtrinsic eCompass software in ANSI C source code format via a click-through license agreement with the simple restriction that the software be used in conjunction with Freescale sensors, but without restrictions on the processor used.
The editors of Electronic Products, a leading trade publication for electronic design engineers, evaluated thousands of products introduced over the past year. The winning products were selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application and substantial achievement in price and performance. Freescale’s Xtrinsic eCompass software was honored in the software category for providing source code and a simple licensing process, which significantly empowers engineers wanting to add eCompass and orientation calculation to consumer products.
“We are honored to be recognized by Electronic Products for our significant achievements in the sensor fusion space, illustrated by the innovative design of our Xtrinsic eCompass software,” said Seyed Paransun, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Sensor & Actuator Solutions Division. “This is a true testament to the dedication of Freescale and our entire team of engineers to develop compelling sensing solutions that achieve outstanding levels of performance.”
Sensor fusion algorithms synthesize the inherent strengths of each sensor to achieve greater accuracy and optimization. Freescale's Xtrinsic eCompass magnetic calibration algorithms implement real-time characterization of the intense hard and soft iron magnetic field interference present on smartphone or tablet printed circuit boards, while the tilt-compensated eCompass software provides an accurate compass heading irrespective of the orientation of the handheld device.
The AerospaceTM, AndroidTM and Windows® 8 coordinate systems are supported. Freescale’s ANSI C source code is supplied in a sensor simulation framework using simple console input and output to allow engineers to build, run and verify the algorithms on their target processor in a matter of minutes before the physical sensors are added to the circuit board.
2012 marks the 38th annual Electronic Products’ “Product of the Year” Awards, which recognizes the best products in the industry. The 2012 Product of the Year Awards were announced in the January 2013 issue of Electronic Products with a cover feature and a brief description of each product.
For more information about the awards, please visit Electronic Products’ website: http://www2.electronicproducts.com/productyear.aspx.
For more information about the Freescale Xtrinsic eCompass solution, please visit www.freescale.com/ecompass.
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A proven leader in sensing solutions
Expanding on its more than 30-year heritage of sensor innovation, Freescale's Xtrinsic sensing solutions are designed with the right combination of high-performance sensing capability, processing capacity and customizable software to help deliver smart, differentiated sensing applications. With Xtrinsic sensing solutions, Freescale’s vision is to offer a diverse and differentiated product portfolio to meet the expanding needs of the automotive, consumer and industrial segments. Xtrinsic solutions offer distinct blends of functionality and intelligence designed to help customers differentiate and win in highly competitive markets.