Sensirion has joined Atmel’s extensive sensor hub platform ecosystem to boost the development of smarter devices for the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables.
As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s sensor hub solutions combine inputs from different sensors, ranging from motion to environmental (such as Sensirion‘s humidity and temperature sensors). These sensor hub solutions not only provide real-time direction, orientation and inclination data, but now include environmental information, bringing optimized performance to a wide range of applications including gaming, navigation, augmented reality and contextual awareness.
“As devices get smarter and more connected, there is an increasing need for environmental sensors, such as humidity and temperature,” Sensirion Technology Evangelist Johannes Winkelmann explained. “By partnering with Atmel on their ultra-low power sensor hub solutions, our customers can implement always-on sensor solutions while maintaining low-power consumption to increase the battery life for many of these battery-operated devices.”
Espen Krangnes, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Atmel Corporation, expressed similar sentiments.
“With the increasing number of sensors in consumer devices today, low power is a key differentiator specifically for battery-powered devices. The platform is the first of many devices in this series that is specifically tailored for sensor hubs. Our ultra-low power and devices features, and the flexible development ecosystem bundled with the best sensors and sensor software in the market allows customers to create unique and differentiating products,” he said.
“Collaboration with leading sensor manufacturers like Sensirion will enable Atmel to provide engineers with the most appropriate sensor and firmware solutions, thereby reducing overall time-to-market. Plus, the sensor manufacturers offer sensor extension boards (AKA wings) to connect with Atmel’s sensor hub platform. These are used to accelerate the prototyping process – along with software that is fully compatible with our development ecosystem.”
It should be noted that the the market for sensors is expected to increase to nearly $91.5 billion by 2016. Indeed, with more sensors being integrated into mobile, gaming, consumer, wearables, and healthcare devices, there is an increasing demand to offload the application processor with a standalone microcontroller tasked with fusing sensor data.
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