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Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52832 SoC powers advanced motion tracking for virtual reality motion controller
10
May
2017
2017
Oslo, Norway
nRF52832 SoC’s ARM M4F microprocessor provides ample computational power to run complex sensor algorithm and low latency Bluetooth Low Energy wireless connectivity in CyweeMotion’s ‘VRRM01’ virtual reality remote module.
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Taiwan-based CyweeMotion Group Ltd. (CyweeMotion) has selected Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth® Low Energy System-on-Chip (SoC) for its VRRM01 virtual reality (VR) remote module, designed to simplify development of wireless controllers for Android mobile and PC-based VR applications.
Wireless VR motion controllers are held by the user during play to translate their movements in the real world to movements in the virtual world, viewed on a smartphone or PC-based VR app via a VR headset. The VRRM01 remote module incorporates a nine-axis motion sensor combining a three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, and three-axis magnetometer to track the user’s hand motions using the company’s proprietary, advanced ‘sensor fusion’ algorithm, powered by the nRF52832 SoC. The module also provides a touchpad for finger touch-tracking, and five function buttons for additional gameplay control options.
The nRF52832 SoC’s embedded ARM M4F processor provides ample computing power to implement CyweeMotion’s sensor fusion engine’s algorithm. The algorithm generates ‘flicker-free’ motion tracking at up to 100 Hz, transmitted across the Nordic SoC’s Bluetooth LE link to Android Bluetooth 4.0 (and later) smartphones, for a fast-response VR experience free of motion-sickness that can result from competitive products.
Wireless VR motion controllers are held by the user during play to translate their movements in the real world to movements in the virtual world, viewed on a smartphone or PC-based VR app via a VR headset. The VRRM01 remote module incorporates a nine-axis motion sensor combining a three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, and three-axis magnetometer to track the user’s hand motions using the company’s proprietary, advanced ‘sensor fusion’ algorithm, powered by the nRF52832 SoC. The module also provides a touchpad for finger touch-tracking, and five function buttons for additional gameplay control options.
The nRF52832 SoC’s embedded ARM M4F processor provides ample computing power to implement CyweeMotion’s sensor fusion engine’s algorithm. The algorithm generates ‘flicker-free’ motion tracking at up to 100 Hz, transmitted across the Nordic SoC’s Bluetooth LE link to Android Bluetooth 4.0 (and later) smartphones, for a fast-response VR experience free of motion-sickness that can result from competitive products.
We chose the nRF52832 SoC for our VRRM01 design because its highly-efficient ARM Cortex M4F processor has the capability to run our sensor fusion algorithm in a more efficient way.
Max Lin, CyweeMotion
The VRRM01 remote module employs a 200 mAh Li-Poly battery that can provide over 40 hours of continuous game time―or 200 days in standby mode―between recharge, thanks in part to the ultra low power characteristics of the nRF52832 SoC. The SoC has been engineered to minimize power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with Nordic’s nRF51 Series SoCs. The result is a Bluetooth LE solution which offers 58 CoreMark/mA, up to twice as power efficient as competing devices.
Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth LE SoC, a member of Nordic’s sixth generation of ultra low power (ULP) wireless connectivity solutions, combines a 64MHz, 32-bit ARM® Cortex® M4F processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT™ and proprietary 2.4GHz RF software) featuring -96dB RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory and 64kB RAM. When launched, the SoC was the world’s highest performance single-chip Bluetooth LE solution, delivering up to 60 percent more generic processing power, offering 10 times the Floating Point performance and twice the DSP performance compared to competing solutions and making it a good choice for complex, computationally-demanding applications such as CyweeMotion’s VR motion controller.
“We chose the nRF52832 SoC for our VRRM01 design because its highly-efficient ARM Cortex M4F processor has the capability to run our sensor fusion algorithm in a more efficient way,” says Max Lin, VP of Sales, CyweeMotion. “And Nordic’s unique software architecture separates the S132 SoftDevice [Bluetooth LE RF protocol ‘stack’] from application code development bringing flexibility and reliability to application software development.
“Nordic’s proven hardware and software architecture has allowed us to focus on our core capabilities and ideas without the need for deep knowledge of Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity.”
