“Always on” with Hillcrest Freespace and Atmel MCUs

Hillcrest Labs has announced that Coolpad Group (previously China Wireless) is using the company’s sensor hub software to enable “always on” sensing for Coolpad smartphones.

More specifically, Hillcrest’s Freespace software will run on Atmel’s low-power microcontroller (MCU) solutions to provide high performance sensor fusion, gesture recognition and always on context awareness capabilities – with dramatically lower power consumption and extended battery life.

“Coolpad realizes that sensors are critical to differentiate its functionality and maintain its dramatic growth in the global smartphone market,” said Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hillcrest Labs. “We’re proud to have been selected by Coolpad to provide the sensor hub functionality that will define its new mobile experience and enable context awareness, augmented reality, improved navigation and better gaming.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, sensor hubs are a separate class of chips designed to offload sensor management from the main processor for mobile phones and other devices. Essentially, they reduce the power requirements to add always on sensing in smartphones, tablets and wearables devices such as activity monitors, smartwatches, as well as head mounted displays (HMDs).

This enables gesture control, context awareness, pedestrian navigation, augmented reality, health and fitness monitoring, along with immersive gaming. Hillcrest’s sensor hub software products combine an array of sophisticated algorithms to provide low power, high performance sensor fusion and transform sensor data into valuable application-ready information.

Interested in learning more? You can check out Hillcrest’s official site here and Atmel’s MCU product page here.

Atmel’s mXT1664S powers 18.5-inch PCAP touch panel

Display specialist Ginsbury has announced the addition of a new 18.5-inch projected capacitive (PCAP) touch panel from industrial touch panel supplier Ocular. The latest PCAP – powered by Atmel’s mXT1664S – is part of the latter’s Crystal Touch: TRUE Multi-Touch PLUS standard product lineup.

According to Ocular VP Paul Massey, Crystal Touch: TRUE Multi-Touch PLUS panels offer a multi-touch interface with a pre-integrated, optically bonded, soda-lime cover glass with a decorative black border.

“The additional layer of glass adds durability and is ready to be integrated into touch driven devices,” he explained. “Users also have the option of adding their logo, or product name, to the black border on the pre-bonded cover glass. Medical, Point-of-Sale (PoS) and many other industries will benefit from this new standard size offering.”

Powered by Atmel’s versatile MaXTouch  mXT1664S controller, the 18.5-inch PCAP touch panel allows for up to 16 simultaneous touches.

“The combination of Ocular’s Crystal Touch technology and Atmel’s maXTouch line of touchscreen controllers provide a robust and sophisticated touch solution that can identify and disregard unintentional touches,” Massey added. “Atmel’s maXTouch series is ideal for larger touch panels with key features that include unparalleled noise suppression, high responsiveness and precision which help provide an enhanced user experience.”

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s maXTouch mXT1664S capacitive touchscreen controller brings the S Series architecture to large touchscreen devices.

The mXT1664S benefits from the powerful 32-bit AVR core and, as a result of the S Series architecture, boasts the industry’s highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), providing unrivaled touch performance.

As with the other devices in the S Series, the mXT1664S includes:

• Atmel’s thinner sensors, which enable the thinnest touchscreen stacks with the noisiest displays.
• maXCharger Technology, which ensures flawless operation with any charger.

Simply put, the mXT1664S delivers industry-leading performance in terms of narrow stylus operation, touch responsiveness and low power consumption. With 1,664 nodes, the device is capable of delivering high-precision performance on tablets and notebooks, enabling designers to reach Windows 8 certification.

2013 CES, Here We Come!

Ultra HD TVs. Windows 8 tablets. Large-screen smartphones. Bendable screens. These are just a few of the new gadgets that promise to fill the booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center next week. It’s time for the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

This is an exciting period not just for the OEMs that are producing these gadgets, but also for the companies behind many of the underlying technologies that are making these gadgets possible. Take microcontrollers (MCUs), for example. Microcontrollers are powering many of the world’s smart, connected devices. Some studies have revealed that on a given day–at work, home and play–we’re likely to interact with as many as 150 MCUs in the digital devices and systems that we use. It’s the spread of The Internet of Things, and MCUs are right at the core.

At CES, Atmel will host a meeting room where customers can see demos of MCUs and other products and meet with Atmel Technology Experts and executives. To schedule a meeting, contact your local sales rep or email events@atmel.com. In addition, CES attendees can see our ZigBee Light Link and Wireless Composer/Sniffer solutions in the ZigBee Pavilion; our meeting room will feature a selection of other wireless solutions.

From our microcontroller portfolio, we’ll be showcasing demos including:

• Ultra-low power SAM4L MCUs, our newest ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based devices
• AVR XMEGA E MCUs, using its asynchronous event system on a 6-string LED board
• An ARM processor-based embedded microprocessor that powers an in-home health monitor

With the dazzling array of touch-based products that typically fill the CES show floor, Atmel is excited to be behind many of the technologies that give these products their distinct capabilities. The newest touchscreen controllers in our maXTouch S Series are Windows 8 certified, feature integrated sensor hub technology and support screen sizes up to 17.3″. At CES, we’ll demo sensor hub technology on a Windows 8 tablet.

We are also excited to share the newest demos of our XSense flexible touch sensors. These demos highlight some key features of XSense for smartphones, tablets and other industrial designs: narrow borders, support for curved surfaces, support for larger touchscreens.

We look forward to meeting many of you at 2013 CES!