Sensors expo & conference 2012 photos from the floor

Steve Taranovich - June 6, 2012

Sensors Expo floor opened today and eager design engineers rushed in to see suppliers that could supply solutions to their designs.

I walked the floor all day and met some very talented design engineers from the supplier booths and also the EE's who were roaming through the exhibits.

The following are a few of the many solutions that caught my eye.

AMS(formerly Austriamicrosystems) displayed one of their absolute linear position sensors in an automotive demo with a clutch and brake mechanism that showed the depression distance accurately on the PC display.

The AS5132-DB rotary encoder demo board by AMS was demonstrated on this display with the knob approaching 90 degrees (See image of demo board below)

AMS rotary encoder demo board

Alec Melnick, Sr. Product marketing manager, for ROHM demonstrates their new Sensor Hub demo with #ML610Q792 MCU, assorted ROHM sensors, Lapis Bluetooth LE module, Kionix accelerometer (See display for details below)

Sensor Hub – Combines a sensor control microcontroller and Bluetooth LE module with an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, temperature sensor and pulse sensor to monitor user activity and ambient conditions

ROHM was also displaying their super capacitor capability that could be used in Energy Harvesting applications

ROHM, in conjunction with a renowned Japanese university, Ritsumeikan University, joined by iSiD, an IT solutions innovator, developed the GuidePost Cell – A breakthrough indoor navigation application for smartphones and other portable devices

ROHM developed a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) design that maximizes indoor light conversion to efficiently supply power to a load or super capacitor

Freescale Semiconductor has announced its support of Microsoft Windows 8 sensor requirements with a fully enabled 12-axis sensor development reference platform.
General availability for the Freescale platform is planned for Q3 2012.

An easy-to-use mechatronics development and demonstration platform for the Freescale's Robot Kit operating with the TWR-MECH Board. Freescale's robot demo demonstrates the simplicity of building up such a plug-and play embedded system that contains a microcontroller, sensors and wireless capability with no prior programming knowledge needed.