TDK named 2019 best of sensors award winner in multiple categories
TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) has been named a 2019 “Best of Sensors” Award winner.
- TDK named 2019 “Company of the Year”
- Chirp Microsystems, a TDK group company recognized for “Most Innovative Technology of the Year”
In addition to being named “Company of the Year”, Chirp SonicTrack, a hardware/software solution that provides six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) controller tracking for all-in-one (AIO) virtual reality (VR) systems was recognized as the “Most Innovative Technology of the Year,” which highlights cutting-edge advancements and achievements that are moving the sensors industry forward. The prestigious awards were presented by the Sensors Expo Event Director during Sensors Expo & Conference 2019 (#Sensors19), held in San Jose, California.
Since its start in1935, TDK has created and provided the market with a solid foundation of passive components and ferrite-based products and core technologies. On the basis of ferrite and material science, TDK has developed various material and component technologies that have consistently contributed to industry innovation.
Throughout its 84-year history, TDK has continued to innovate on this foundation to better serve an ever-changing society by developing new products that answer the industry’s current and future needs. Today, TDK’s expanding sensor portfolio covers sensing temperature, pressure, currents, and magnetic fields, as well as position, angles, and acceleration rates. This includes the product brands TDK, Chirp, EPCOS, InvenSense, Micronas and Tronics.
Chirp’s SonicTrack is the only tracking system for the VR/AR/MR market that is based on sonar, an ultralow power, ultraprecise 3D tracking technology. The SonicTrack solution is an inside-out tracking system that fuses ultrasonic and inertial sensor data to provide 6-DoF position and orientation tracking of a hand-held controller with sub-millimeter precision over a field of view (FoV) of over 240 degrees.
The position tracking system utilizes sonar by transmitting ultrasonic pulses between Chirp’s CH-101 sensors inside the VR system’s head-mounted display (HMD) and the hand-held controllers, providing 3D position information of the controllers relative to the HMD. Competing camera-based solutions have only 2D image data, requiring computation-intensive image processing from multiple cameras to estimate 3D position information.
TDK’s true 3D ultrasonic sensing advantage results in a solution that is much lower power and better optimized for the mobile processors used in all-in-one VR/AR/XR systems. The CH-101’s omnidirectional response makes it easy to track controllers over an extremely wide field of view, another advantage over camera-based systems.
Sensors Expo & Conference is the industry’s premier event dedicated to sensors, connectivity, and IoT. The winners of the 2019 Best of Sensors Awards represent the advances in innovations and real-world applications of sensors as well as the teams and individuals who demonstrate commitment to engineering excellence and overall ingenuity.
“For more than three decades Sensors Expo has been bringing together the most exciting technological advancements and cutting-edge applications from across the industry.
The winners of this year’s Best of Sensors Awards underscore just how far-reaching the impacts of these innovations have become. TDK personifies the commitment to engineering excellence and overall ingenuity we look for and we are thrilled to recognize their efforts in an extremely competitive field,” noted Cal Groton, Event Director, Sensors Expo & Conference.
www.tdk.com
