editor's blog
Subscribe Now

You Put That Where??

Wearable electronics is the coming thing, and fitness-related gear is the most obvious thing to wear. And CES had a huge section dedicated to these semi-health devices. “Semi” because it’s this nice cozy niche where you can do things that affect your health with no required FDA approval.

But the scale of integration is pretty astounding. One example was a company called Valencell that has designed sensors that fit into an earbud. Actually, it’s more than just the sensor – there’s a lot of computing that goes on in that little thing that still has to be comfortable to wear (which was a challenge for them).

First, they have an IR emitter and detector that senses heart rate. Then they have an accelerometer to estimate pace, distance, and step rate. All of this information can be used to estimate oxygen and calories burned.

The sensors interact with your phone, but they don’t rely on the phone to do all the work: there’s also a DSP in the headset that processes the sensor data. What the phone gets is the final result for display to the runner.

Some of the challenges – in addition to the simple issues of size and comfort – included:

  • Resting heart rate is pretty straightforward to detect, but when running, there’s so much noise that it’s hard to reject the extraneous artifacts.
  • Indoor and outdoor light profiles are very different; the system has to handle both. The sun in particular has lots of IR in its light spectrum, and that has to be rejected. They have to be able to handle running into and out of shadows.
  • They can detect your stride +/- 10% if constant, or you can train it to get to +/- 5%. They can interpret transitions between walking and running.

As a “running” app with an accelerometer, it might be tempting to think of this as a navigation thing that it’s detecting, but it’s not; it’s interpreting the bumping around as you bounce with each step. It knows how many steps you took; it has no idea where those steps went.

They don’t make the end products themselves; they license the technology to audio/headset makers for integration into their systems, whether wired or wireless (e.g., Bluetooth). You can find more at their website.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Mar 21, 2023
We explain computational lithography and explore how our partnership with NVIDIA accelerates semiconductor scaling and the chip design flow in the AI age. The post How Synopsys and NVIDIA Are Accelerating Semiconductor Scaling in the AI Age appeared first on New Horizons for...
Mar 20, 2023
Electronic design has evolved over the years to provide methods for optimizing power, space, and energy needs for the most demanding market applications in areas including hyperscale computing, consumer, 5G communications, automotive, mobile, aerospace, industrial, and health...
Mar 10, 2023
A proven guide to enable project managers to successfully take over ongoing projects and get the work done!...

featured video

First CXL 2.0 IP Interoperability Demo with Compliance Tests

Sponsored by Synopsys

In this video, Sr. R&D Engineer Rehan Iqbal, will guide you through Synopsys CXL IP passing compliance tests and demonstrating our seamless interoperability with Teladyne LeCroy Z516 Exerciser. This first-of-its-kind interoperability demo is a testament to Synopsys' commitment to delivering reliable IP solutions.

Learn more about Synopsys CXL here

featured chalk talk

Megawatt Chargers in Electric Commercial Vehicle Infrastructure
In order to move forward with the large-scale implementation of commercial electric vehicles, we need to consider efficiency, availability, reliability, and longevity for the mega-watt chargers required for these applications. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Dr. Martin Schulz from Littelfuse joins Amelia Dalton to discuss the infrastructure demands of electric commercial vehicles, the role that galvanic isolation plays here and why thyristors may be a great choice for the future of electric commercial vehicles.
Jan 17, 2023
8,924 views