Mexican Media Brands
Hands-Off Controls: Making a Grand Gesture More Common
Low-cost tech promises to bring touchless systems to mainstream models
#interior #electronics
Share
Automakers began to offer gesture control systems in vehicles just a few years ago. To date, applications have been mostly limited to luxury models such as the BMW 7 Series.
But that soon may change.
Maxim Integrated Products, a San Jose, Calif.-based signal processing specialist, says it has developed a new sensor technology that is significantly smaller and as much as one-tenth the cost of current hand-gesture systems.
How It Works
Maxim’s MAX25205 system uses integrated optics and infrared sensors in place of the time-of-flight (ToF) cameras used in most gesture control systems.
Maxim gesture control system (Image: Maxim Integrated Products)
Coupled with an LED driver and internal low-dropout regulator, the array of 60 photo diodes is about one-fourth the size of a ToF-based unit, according to the supplier. The design also enables the use of a single (4-mm2) microcontroller in place of multiple units and a sophisticated microprocessor.
Maxim claims the integrated MAX25205 unit enables improved performance and less maintenance. The system recognizes nine different types of hand movements—including swipes, rotations, pinches and proximity sensing—with less lag time, the company says.
Formed in 1983, Maxim had 2019 sales of $2.3 billion. The company develops analog and mixed-signal products.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Honda Re-Imagines and Re-Engineers the Ridgeline
When Honda announced the first-generation Ridgeline in 2005, it opened the press release describing the vehicle: “The Honda Ridgeline re-defines what a truck can be with its true half-ton bed payload capability, an interior similar to a full-size truck and the exterior length of a compact truck.” And all that said, people simply couldn’t get over the way there is a diagonal piece, a sail-shaped buttress, between the cab and the box.
-
Jeeps Modified for Moab
On Easter morning in Moab, Utah, when the population of that exceedingly-hard-to-get-to town in one of the most beautiful settings on Earth has more than doubled, some people won’t be hunting for Easter eggs, but will be trying to get a good look at one of the vehicles six that Jeep has prepared for real-life, fast-feedback from the assembled at the annual Easter Jeep Safari.
-
Honda Launches Its Latest Fuel Cell Vehicle
If Honda is anything, it is an engine company.