News & Analysis
Improved context-awareness for mobile phones
Brian Fuller
12/4/2012 8:00 AM EST
SAN JOSE, Calif. --Sensor Platforms on Monday (Dec. 3) rolled out a new version of its FreeMotion software library with features that improve the context awareness of mobile devices, making them smarter and less power-hungry.
The updates to FreeMotion are available in beta version this quarter, with a production version expected late in the first quarter of 2013. FreeMotion algorithms interpret sensor data to infer detailed information, such as whether the device is in motion, how the device is being carried, user posture of the user, and the mode of transportation, such as car or plane.
The average office worker uses a mobile device about 6 percent of his or her waking hours, said Ian Chen, Sensor Platforms' executive vice president.
"We thought surely sensors--since they'll be available 100 percent of the time--there has to be something that sensors can do the other 94 percent of the time," Chen said.
In July, Sensor Platforms announced FreeMotion supported all major mobile microprocessors, including
- 32-bit embedded processors such as ARM’s Cortex-M, Atmel’s AVR and Freescale’s ColdFire families used as sensor hubs
- 64-bit application processors such as Intel’s Atom, nVidia’s Tegra, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, and TI’s OMAP processors used in smartphones and tablets.
The library update means not only that designers can work to cut power consumption (a device, for instance, would turn off GPS if the user is stationary), but developers can build smarter applications, such as preventing "butt-dialing" because the system knows the phone is tucked in your back pocket.
FreeMotion customers choose a la carte the context algorithms they
want to use; Sensor Platforms derives revenue from taking a
percentage of unit shipments, Chen said. The software is designed
to be distributed architecturally, Chen said. 
"However we decide
to partition ourselves today, we'd be wrong tomorrow. We can run
in the sensor hub or run a piece in the apps processor," he said.
FreeMotion's system-power benefits are in their early stages, Chen
suggested.
"We have to start working with OEMS. Someone has to make human-factor decisions," Chen said. "We can be aggressive in turning off the backlight or GPS, but there may be inconveniences."
"Context-aware computing is coming," said Chen, who was featured in EE Times' 40th anniversary coverage as an innovator to watch in the coming years. "FreeMotion is an extension of context awareness."
Chen said Sensor Platforms' first-generation product "led us to think how are people using sensors," in devices where often there are to 18 different sensors built in.
He spent three days analyzing all sensor-relevant apps on Google Play and discovered that nearly half the apps are simply graphical rerprsentation of whatever the sensor is telling them--a compass, horizons finding, torque meter and so forth. (Surprisingly, Chen found 10 percent of the apps he examined are used to electromagnetic pulses to help people sense ghosts).
Such context-aware software is broadly applicable, Chen acknowledges, pointing to dedicated systems for health-care applications. He declined to comment on Sensor Platforms' military engagements, other than to say "there are training application implications."
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iniewski
12/4/2012 12:20 PM EST
10% of people looking for ghosts???
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Ian-C
12/7/2012 1:08 PM EST
I don't get that either but I'm just reporting what I find on Google Play. I see it as a sign that, as an industry, we haven't really considered what sensors in smartphones can/should do.
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