14 DAY TRIAL // Chip makers are racing to introduce new chip architecture in Barcelona, and Audience is not being the exception to the rule, so it’s introducing a processor that bundles a motion tracking feature for smartphones.
What’s special about the MQ100 is that it won’t supposedly cause a massive battery drain. So instead of buying a fitness tracker or some other kind of wearable to pair it with your phone, you could be using the Audience MQ100 chip as an always-on fitness tracker, instead.
According to Audience, the MQ100 chip uses less than 5mW and at the same time it’s capable of keeping a tap on your phone’s sensors, including gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer and pressure sensors.
Apparently, most devices these days use between 60 and 200mW to make the same exact measurements, so being able to shrink that down to 5mW is quite impressive.
Audience is hoping that by releasing this chip it will prompt smartphone makers to add more health and fitness tracking features to their devices. More than that, the MQ100 chip might prove to come in-handy if implemented in navigation-like applications.
Audience isn't unique in trying to bring such a technology into smartphones. For example, Apple uses a motion co-processor in its A7 chip, which can be spotted powering the iPhone 5S. But the Audience chip could make it possible to see the same capabilities come to other devices, specifically Android devices.
President and CEO of Audience, Peter Santos, said in the official statement that “Premium smartphones need to be Always-on, so they can understand and act upon voice commands and continuously track motion, enabling apps like health and fitness tracking.”
“Our new MotionQ technology, combined with VoiceQ, will enable broad contextual awareness on mobile devices at extremely low power, providing truly natural user experiences.”
Aside from launching the new always-on motion detector, the chip-maker also introduced two new voice processors, including the eS703 and eS705 that come complete with advanced voice processing features.
The new chips feature the VoiceQ technology which embeds an “always on” listening mode” which is capable of capturing verbal commands. The same focus on lower energy consumption is being highlighted here too.
At MWC, we saw Qualcomm launch an eight-core 64-bit processor for high-end mobile devices, while Intel pulled the veil off 64-bit Merrifield and Moorefield mobile platforms, and MediaTek also announced its own 64-bit offering, so the chip architecture ecosystem is being refreshed heavily in Barcelona.