Analog Devices have released an optical sensor for gesture recognition, which improves sensing accuracy and reliability over existing solutions by measuring a subject’s position, proximity, and gestures from a single sensor.  Competitive solutions requiring multiple sensors are often inaccurate, as the sensors “see” objects differently from varying angles making the signals difficult to combine. The ADUX1020 is a highly efficient photometric sensor with an integrated 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a 20-bit burst accumulator that works in concert with a flexible light emitting diode (LED) driver. It is designed to modulate a LED and measure the corresponding optical return signal. The digital engine includes circuitry and control for data aggregation and proximity detection. The single-point sensing used in the ADUX1020 optical sensor improves reliability of the application and reduces design complexity and cost for the system developer by requiring fewer components.

The ADUX1020 data output and device configuration use a 1.8 V I²C interface and the control circuitry includes flexible LED pulse width and period generation combined with synchronous detection. This circuitry is complemented by a low noise, low power, and wide dynamic range configurable analog front end (AFE), clock generation, LED driver, and digital logic for position and smart sample mode (event driven x, y coordinates, relative z data). This complete AFE features ambient light rejection, avoiding corruption due to external interference. Just one inexpensive standard surface mount, broad angle or narrow angle IR LED (depending upon application) is required, the IR LED mounts externally to the ADUX1020.

Gesture recognition is an emerging user interface method in building and industrial control panels, where a user interacts with a device simply by motioning or gesturing.  It is especially important in situations where touch-screen interfaces are challenged, such as in wet conditions, when a user is wearing gloves, or when a control panel is difficult to reach. Typical applications include Gesture for user interface (UI) control in portable devices, Industrial/automation monitoring, Building management, Presence detection and Angle sensing.

In addition to single-point sensing, the ADUX1020 optical sensor features high ambient light rejection, which allows reliable and accurate operation under challenging lighting conditions. This too results in a more reliable application end user experience. Other optical sensors are often challenged by ambient light from sources like full sun, high frequency LED and fluorescents, all of which can disrupt the sensor’s ability to interpret gestures accurately.

Click below to view a short video demonstration of the ADUX1020

Features and Benefits

• Multifunction photometric sensor and signal conditioning
• Fully integrated AFE, ADC, LED driver, and timing core
• Usable for multiple optical measurement applications, including gesture control and proximity sensing
• Enables an ambient light rejection capability using both optical and analog filtering
• On-chip programmable flexible current sink for external LED
• High sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
• High resolution position measurement
• Gesture recognition with 0.5 cm to 15 cm range
• Proximity sensing to 20 cm
• 400 kHz I²C interface
• Gesture/proximity works under infrared (IR) transparent glass or other materials
• Simple integration with optics; no need for precise alignment and no lens is required
• Low power operation
• 1.8 V analog/digital core
• 8-lead, 2 mm x 3 mm, 0.65 mm height LFCSP

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Click here to download the datasheet.

The ADUX1020 optical sensor is supported by the ADUX1020-EVAL-SDP evaluation kit. The evaluation kit provides users with a simple means of interfacing with the ADUX1020, collecting data from the ADUX1020, and evaluating gesture recognition capabilities, click here to download the user guide. The evaluation kit requires the Optical Gesture Evaluation Tool, which can be downloaded here, a graphical user interface (GUI) that provides users with low level and high level configurability, real-time data analysis, and user datagram protocol (UDP) transfer capability so the evaluation board can easily interface to a PC. The ADUX1020-EVAL-SDP kit is powered from a USB port, on-board voltage regulators provide voltage supplies required for the ADUX1020.

Anglia are offering customers a FREE ADUX1020-EVAL-SDP evaluation kit and samples of the ADUX1020 multifunction optical sensor from Analog Devices, please fill in the form below to register interest now.

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