With our exciting announcement today of our ArcticLink 3 S1 and PolarPro 3 solutions, I thought it would be proper to provide some terms that followers of QuickLogic will soon to be very accustomed to hearing from us in various places.

With no further ado (and there will be a test, so pay attention)…

Sensor Hub: A device that interacts with sensors (embedded elsewhere in the phone/tablet, etc…) to collect and interpret sensor data to create sensor fusion and context detection

ULPSH: Ultra-Low Power Sensor Hub.  QuickLogic’s Sensor Hub technology operates at a power level that is 1/30 the consumption of competing solutions

Context: the activity of the handheld device; is it in the users pocket, is the user running, etc…  Extremely useful in creating sensor fusion and applications

Sensor Algorithms: 3rd party or OEM-developed algorithms that use sensor hub data to create context.

Always-on Context Awareness: Unless completely powered down, the phone (even if the display off) is tracking the users activities 24/7.  Ideal situation for application developers, as this doesn’t require manual activation and deactivation of sensor subsystems

9DOF: 9 Degree of Freedom sensors, meaning the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer

Accelerometer: A physical sensor that detects any movement of the device it is embedded in

Gyroscope: A physical sensor that detects the degrees of tilt, yaw, and pitch of the device it is embedded in

Magnetometer: A physical sensor that detects magnetic north for the purpose of determining direction

Physical Sensor: An actual sensor contained in the device; for instance, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer

Virtual Sensor: A “sensor” that is created through the combination of data of physical sensors

Sensor Fusion: The creation of actual information from sensor data.  For example; the 9DOF information allows the phone (and applications) to understand the phone user is walking north

Data Fusion: The fusion of sensor data with external hard data, for instance 9DOF information with Google Maps for indoor navigation in shopping malls

Sensor Sub-System:  A “catch-all” term that describes the 9DOF + the Sensor Hub