Speaking of MEMS sensor fusion, my next meeting paired me with Ian Chen of Freescale, one of the individuals who was instrumental in bringing open-source sensor fusion libraries to the MEMS Industry Group’s (MIG’s) Accelerated Innovation Community (AIC).

Wasting no time, Ian and I headed over to the Freescale IoT bus where they fittingly had a live demonstration of their Sensor Fusion Toolbox. For those unfamiliar, the Sensor Fusion Toolbox is a library of software tools available on Freescale’s Freedom development boards that combines multiple sensor inputs into a single value for more accurate measurements (to learn more about the basics of sensor fusion, check out “Basics of 6DOF and 9DOF sensor fusion”). The Freescale Sensor Fusion Toolbox is available on Windows and Android operating systems.

[Figure 1 | The Freescale Sensor Fusion Toolbox integrates an algorithm library for 6- or 9-axis sensor fusion that can be leveraged in applications requiring precise measurement.]

Not to be outdone by rival STMicro, however, Ian also informed me that UDOO Neo, a DIY platform branded as the marriage of Raspberry Pi and Arduino, is leveraging Freescale’s i.MX 6SoloX processor and 9-axis sensors and recently wrapped up a successful Kickstarter campaign. In the spirit of DIY, it’s nice to see platforms like the Freedom board foster independent innovation using components from multiple industry vendors (the UDOO Neo also contains an Atmel MCU), as opposed to locking startups in.

Preorders of the UDOO Neo are available now, priced at under $50.

[Figure 2 | The UDOO Neo leverages Freescale sensors and the i.MX 6SoloX system on chip (SoC) in a sub-$50 DIY board.]

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