AMS offers gesture-recognizing handset sensor
The TMG3992/3993 build upon AMS success with the 3-in-1 TMD277x proximity detector and ambient light sensor (ALS) family, of which AMS has sold over a billion units into handset applications.
The TMG3992/3 come in a module measuring 2mm by 4mm and support all the functions of the predecessor but with the addition of infrared illuminated touchless gesture recognition and mobeam. In addition, what was a single optical diode has been transformed into a 4 by 4 matrix of optical diodes tuned to red green and blue and broad optical frequencies. In this way the optical sensor can be used not only to switch off the display when a mobile phone is held to the ear, but can adjust the display for ambient light characteristics and also provide input for the camera’s light settings.
The TMG399x product family is therefore suitable for touchless gesture control and display management in smartphones, tablets and many other consumer electronics on the market today.
The gesture detection is based on four (NESW) directional photo-diodes to sense reflected IR energy, then converts this data into physical motion information in-cluding: velocity, direction and distance. As sensors continue to proliferate in today’s mobile devices, support for sensor hub architectures has become an important requirement to enable optimum system performance.
The TMG399x gesture software currently supports optimized Android drivers, and a fully-qualified gesture library is available for the Qualcomm ADSP sensor core on the Snapdragon 6xx and 8xx processor family for four-direction gesture, plus ALS, proximity, and all the other standard features. The ams gesture software offers expanded capability to include support for eight-direction gesture, push button and taps.
The digital ASIC inside the module includes a programmable state-machine and 128bytes of RAM to contain optical protocols.
"The TMG399x’s family of IR touchless gesture sensors provides for an enhanced user experience. As consumer electronics – from smartphones and wearables to home automation and control – offer greater functionality, the ability to interact with these systems will be greatly enhanced as these space-constrained devices are able to recognize and respond to the user without the need to han-dle or touch them," said Russell Jordan, senior marketing manager at the optical sensor business unit of AMS, in a statement.
The TMG3993 and TMG3992 are in volume production now, and priced at $2.50 for 1,000 pieces.
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