EMBEDDED HARDWARE STATE MACHINE FOR CONTEXT DETECTION INTEGRATED WITH A SENSOR CHIP
First Claim
1. A packaged sensor integrated circuit comprising:
- a single integrated circuit (IC) package having integrated thereina sensing element to provide a sensor signal indicative of movement of the IC package;
an analog to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the sensing element to sample the sensor signal;
a hardware state machine to filter the sampled sensor data from the ADC to obtain filtered sensor data, and to match the filtered sensor data with one of a plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns, the matched one of the plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns being a recognized pattern, and to generate context information based on the recognized pattern; and
a communications interface to provide the context information to an external processor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Hardware state machine is embedded with sensing element to generate movement context values and context information. Mobile device includes applications processor (AP), data storage, and sensor integrated circuit (IC) package. Data storage includes operating system (OS), and an application program to display a step count. Sensor IC package includes sensing element, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), embedded hardware state machine, and communications interface. Sensing element provides a sensor signal indicating the mobile device'"'"'s movement. ADC samples the sensor signal. Hardware state machine filters the sampled sensor data, matches the filtered sensor data with one of several predetermined sensor data patterns (e.g. recognized pattern), and then generates a context value, e.g. walking, and a context information, e.g., step count, based on the recognized pattern. The context value and the context information are then provided via the communication interface to the OS (running on the AP.) Other embodiments are also described.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A packaged sensor integrated circuit comprising:
a single integrated circuit (IC) package having integrated therein a sensing element to provide a sensor signal indicative of movement of the IC package; an analog to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the sensing element to sample the sensor signal; a hardware state machine to filter the sampled sensor data from the ADC to obtain filtered sensor data, and to match the filtered sensor data with one of a plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns, the matched one of the plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns being a recognized pattern, and to generate context information based on the recognized pattern; and a communications interface to provide the context information to an external processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A mobile device comprising:
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a wireless communications interface; a display screen; an applications processor; a data storage coupled to the applications processor, the data storage to store an operating system, and an application that is to display a step count on the display screen; a single integrated circuit (IC) package coupled to the application processor, the single IC package having integrated therein a position, orientation or movement sensing element to provide a sensor signal, an analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample the sensor signal from the sensing element, a hardware state machine to (i) filter the sampled sensor data from the ADC, (ii) match the filtered sensor data with one of a plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns, and (iii) generate context information based on a recognized pattern, the matched one of the plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns being the recognized pattern, and a communication interface to provide the context information to the applications processor. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for operating a sensor integrated circuit, comprising:
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generating a sensor signal indicating movement; sampling the sensor signal to produce a sampled sensor data; filtering the sampled sensor data; accessing a plurality of predetermined stored sensor data patterns associated with a plurality of movements of the mobile device, respectively; matching the filtered sensor data to one of the plurality of predetermined stored sensor data patterns, the matched one of the plurality of predetermined sensor data patterns being a recognized pattern; generating context information based on the recognized pattern; and sending the context information from a separately packaged sensor IC, via a communication interface, to an external processor that is programmed in accordance with an operating system and an application that is to retrieve the context information from the separately packaged sensor IC. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. An article of manufacture comprising:
a computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions, that are part of an operating system program of a mobile device, that program an applications processor to read a movement context value from a sensor integrated circuit that is separately packaged than the applications processor, and to then write the context value to storage in the mobile device so as to make the written context value accessible to an application program, wherein the stored instructions also include an application programming interface that enables an application to obtain the context value from the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
Specification