AMS sensor info

ams AG’s sensor chips are at the heart of intuitive user experiences 2014/03/05 By iTers News Sensor chips are likened to eyes, ears, and skins of human being. As they detect constant changes in the real world of sounds and sights, including pressure, temperature, and intensity of lights, sensor chip are revolutionizing UIs, or user interfaces - the way that people interact with machines, making them smarter, friendlier, and more responsive to human actions.  As smart phones are increasingly looking more alike each other, top-tier smart phone makers like Samsung Electronics, Sony, and LG Electronics are racing to buy the beauty of sensor chips to differentiate their product offerings from crowds of ‘me too’ products.  ams AG of Austria is cashing in on smart phone makers’ such rapid embrace for sensor chip solutions, supplying a whole bunch of key enabling-technologies from sensors to MCUs to software algorithm to referencing data base even to system knowhow.  Coming to the fore is its color sensor. Coming complete with light-emitting diodes, light detectors, and RGB clear, or RGBC cells, the color sensor detects ambient light temperature and then corrects color on the screen to make it richer and deeper.  “Color is one of the most important sensors to human beings. That’s the reason why we are spending so much money on high-resolution AMOLED displays for cell phones, tablets and laptops. Many people do not realize that ambient light temperature affects how they see color. What ams AG has developed is a color sensor that detects ambient lights and allows manufacturers to correct color on the screen and display to make it look the best, said Eric Janson, senior vice president of sales and marketing with ams AG.  The working theory of the color sensor chip is straightforward. The color sensor detects ambient light temperature and then automatically adjusts colors to make them richer and deeper. For example, color looks different depending ambient light conditions from home to office or outdoor light. The color sensor corrects deteriorated images to look it better.  According to ams AG, Samsung Electronics has implemented the color sensor technology into its newly-released flagship Galaxy S5 smart phone. Dell Computer has also embedded the color sensor into its high-end laptop models.  Heart rate sensor is another bet, as health care and fitness is rapidly emerging as one of killer aps for smart phones and smart watches.  Built with a light emitting diode and a receiver, the heart rate sensor has been widely used in sports watches so far. As smart phone makers are doing everything to make their product offerings stick out, the heart rate sensor is making its way into smart phones and smart watches to allow smart phone users not only to tick off their heart rate, but also detect oxygen and even blood glucose to tell diabetics in an non-invasive manner when to take insulin.  Senior vice president Eric Janson sees great potentials in this health and fitness applications market for smart phones and smart watches.  “In Internet of Things, of course, every sensor can have an IP address. If you combine heart rate, scan temperature and blood sugar level, you can tell whether this person is healthy and fine or if they need helps, need sending a nurse. The ability to measure these things and detect over the Internet what’s happening, it will really reduce costs of healthcare and increase the quality of life of patients. This is just one example of healthcare monitor and fitness wristband for smart watches,” added he.  True enough, ams AG’s expertise lies in its rich and deep product portfolio as well as its system knowhow to combine and fine-tune its technology building blocks for target applications. Its expertise helps the company to create new UI experiences for smart phones.  RGBC cells; key to gesture sensing  One example is its gesture sensor solution. Coming built an IR LED, IR proximity detector, and a color sensor of RGB clear, RGBC cells, the gesture sensor solution can read the movements of users’ hands over a smart phone screen, allowing users to flip through screen images one by one with just a swipe of their hands.  I think thats what we are looking for “As everybody knows touch screen is very popular, now we can move images juts by waving our hands. Gesture is a new and upcoming application for a smart phone. By waving a hand over the gesture sensor, you can change pictures. Gesture is a next generation of moving screens. Rather than contacting a screen, you simply wave your finger over to move the images. We believe gesture will find its way into many smart phone and tablet applications in the future,” stressed senior vice president Eric Janson.  Key to the gesture solution is a RGBC cell called as color sensor that helps IR LED to exactly detect and measure the movements of users’ hands  "We have RGB clear cells. We have a layer of them put in geometric patterns. When hands move over them, the different color detection cells trigger and detect movements. Making those color filters accurately in the silicon is a key to having a good color sensor. Getting those layers so that they trigger points correctly for gesture also is very important elements. If you only use IR bounce down, then a lot of things trigger points. It is very difficult to detect the movements that way. You can detect presence, not movements. So, you need layers of elements that progressively see the signals. You have an entry signature and exit signature. That’s how we do the movement detections,” explained Eric Janson.  According to him, the IR LED and color sensors work together to sample and reference multiple picture elements to detect four directions- south, east, west and north – as well as angles to exactly read movements of hands.  On top of these key technology building blocks –photo diodes and RGBC color sensor, the company has a hall sensor that detects rotary movements.  Its IR LED technology is also being used in another application for a digital coupon. Built in a smart phone, the IR LED can talk with a bar code scanner at a retailer shop, or a shopping mall to allow smart phone users to redeem a digital discount coupon by jus scanning it through a bar code reader when they go shopping.  As better audio quality is another compelling UI feature for smart phones, ams AG is supplying an acoustic noise cancellation sensor that steer clear of noises in smart phones’ headsets or headphones.  As sensor technologies are rapidly evolving, they will combine together to explore new yet untapped applications, further fueling demand. That’s where the future of ams AG lies in. “ We need big volume to drive costs down. As costs go down, there can be many more applications, “ emphasized Eric Janson.