Gyroscope and accelerometer share MEMS package

PORTLAND, Ore. — STMicroelectronics has combined in one micro-electromechanical system package a 3-axis digital accelerometer with a 2-axis gyro.

Movea S.A., a specialist in motion sensing for consumer electronics, healthcare, and sports applications, is the first customer.

Movea's SmartMotion software simplifies the job of "fusing" linear-motion detection with angular-rotation detection.

The company claims that an accelerometer together with a gyro improves performance, boosts reliability, and enables higher-precision gesture and motion recognition in the medical and sports markets.

Three axis-accelerometers work against gravity to detect coarse linear motions in any direction, but track poorly slow steady rotational movement. By adding a two-axis gyroscope which generates its own internal motion reference, rather than depend on gravity, fine rotational motion up-and-down (pitch) and back-and-forth (yaw) can be detected too, making user interfaces more accurate and responsive.