MOTION SENSING
The past couple of years has seen vast leaps in the way we interact with video games, mobile phones, tablet computers, TV and other electronic devices thanks largely to motion sensors. The ability to sense our position, our motions and gestures, our reactions, our intentions and even our emotions makes for a truly natural and immersive interactive experience.
At Baolab, our NanoEMS™ technology ‘brings motion sensing to the masses’ : standard high-volume CMOS production processes and integration of multiple sensors on a single chip enables us to deliver exceptionally low prices for motion sensing solutions, opening the door to deployment in many other gadgets, accessories, games, content players and toys.
Mobile Handsets
In the mobile phone, NanoEMS™ compass, accelerometer, gyroscope and altimeter sensors transform both applications and the user interface. The user can replace fiddly keystrokes with a natural gesture to provide a secure signature, to unlock the mobile phone, to view the screen in portrait or landscape by flipping the phone, to scroll by tilting and select by tapping or shaking, to interact naturally with a game, to point at a building to find out useful information about its history or contents, or to navigate indoors or through streets of tall buildings where GPS signals are not available.
Other Consumer Products
Integration of MEMS with signal conditioning and data processing electronics in a single chip using a standard CMOS process is the gateway to mass market adoption of sensors in consumer products.
Innovation in motion sensing applications is already transforming motion-controlled pointing devices like mice, remote controllers and gaming controllers.
Our NanoEMS™ ultra-low-cost solution frees the minds of innovators to embed motion sensing in all kinds of everyday products including sports equipment, clothing, keyrings, personal accessories and valuables, creating a new class of motion-tracking enabled accessories and applications using the mobile phone as a gateway to the internet.
What sensors are needed to deliver immersive motion-sensing?
An electronic compass enables maps to be displayed in the direction of motion, provides a directional reference for GPS and a motion detection reference for games or gestures, enables point-to-identify applications for buildings, shops and landmarks and corrects drift in gyroscope sensors.
An accelerometer detects linear motion and changes in position relative to gravity, such as shaking to change track on a music player, flipping the image on a phone when it is changed from a portrait to landscape orientation, correcting a compass reading when the phone is tilted, even detecting a dropped device, and putting it into a safe state before the impending impact!
A gyroscope measures changes in angular velocity or ‘twist’ and smoothly tracks motion.
It is used extensively today for image stabilisation on high-mega pixel digital cameras.
Used together with an accelerometer, a gyro is perfectly suited to track gestures, such as arm movement in mobile gaming and hand movement for in-the-air signatures or customised gestures to unlock your phone.
When a gyroscope is used in conjunction with an accelerometer and electronic compass and possibly even a pressure sensor to measure altitude, very accurate navigation is possible even when GPS satellites are not visible: known as ‘dead reckoning’.
This enables pedestrians and cyclists to use ‘pedestrian navigation’ applications where GPS satellites are hidden by buildings or trees and also ‘in-building navigation’ in multi-storey buildings, shopping malls or other places of interest.
RF SWITCHING
As well as providing low-cost replacements for GaAS FET RF switches, arrays of NanoEMS™ CMOS RF switches finally provide a cost-effective way to build tunable power amplifiers and tunable low-noise amplifiers.
Low-cost NanoEMS™ is set to revolutionize the complex RF front-end section of tomorrow’s mobile phones.
Tunable components enabled by Baolab’s integrated NanoEMS™ CMOS RF switch arrays dramatically reduce the component count and cost of implementing a 3G/4G mobile phone transceiver.
