IR takes on time of flight for contactless gesture sensing
Time of Flight sensors have become increasing popular in many applications from the car to the mobile phone. The Covid-19 pandemic has been driving the need for contactless interfaces, and ToF sensors have been a key part of this.
However Maxim Integrated is taking on ToF sensors with an array of infrared sensors that can detect hand gestures for a fraction of the cost. This is initially aimed at car designs to avoid having to touch the controls, for a tenth the price. That cost reduction opens up new consumer and industrial touch-free interface designs that avoid cross-contamination.
ToF sensors tend to use CMOS image sensors as the receivers for sensing, which can make them expensive. Other approaches have been using neural networks and time information to simplify these receivers.
Instead, Maxim uses an array of 60 photo diodes, LED driver and internal LDO in a 4x4mm chip for design that is 75 percent smaller than a ToF sensor and can be paired with a small microcontroller, rather than the larger microprocessors that more complex solutions require.
This identifies nine gestures, including swipe, rotations, air link and 3×2 proximity zones with low lag time in a single chip rather than three. This cost and size reduction opens up gesture-sensing not just in automotive but in consumer and industrial applications such as smart home hubs, thermostats and others, all without touching the device.
“Although ToF-based systems enabled gesture-sensing in luxury models, automakers are hopeful to add this stylish and life-saving feature to higher volume product tiers as well,” said Sachin Garg, associate vice president at market researcher MarketsandMarkets. “What designers need is a lower cost alternative to today’s systems in order to make the economics of gesture-sensing controls more feasible for non-luxury models.”
Next: evaluation kit under NDA
“Maxim Integrated’s MAX25205 is a game changer for the automotive industry,” said Szu-Kang Hsien, executive business manager for Automotive Business Unit at Maxim Integrated. “By offering the most dynamic gesture control for automotive applications at the lowest cost, automakers can avoid the prohibitive costs of time-of-flight camera solutions and offer gesture sensing in more car models.”
However the evaluation kit is only available under a non-disclosure agreement, which perhaps shows how Maxim sees the technology.
Other ToF articles:
- COMPACT TRANSFORMER FOR ULTRASONIC TOF SENSING
- 3D SENSING EMITTER MODULE FOR SMARTER TOF
- TOF MODULES AND IMAGER CHIPS FOR NON-CONTACT SENSORS
- TOF SENSOR ENABLES MULTI-OBJECT RANGING FROM 2.5cm TO 3m
Other articles on eeNews Europe
- World first with multiple Covid-19 test machine
- Nuvia raises $240m to build ARM data centre chip
- Why the Tesla Battery Day matters for Europe
- Ericsson in $1.1bn IoT buy
- Battery tech and 5G at heart of European Covid-19 recovery
- 5nm wafer costs double says AI chip report
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
