The popularity of wearable devices is high. There are pioneers such as Moto Actv, and then Pebble, which is popular in the crowdfunding platform. Many manufacturers have also launched their own smart watch products. There are international companies like Samsung. Domestic cool Huawei and so on. However, these products face similar technical problems regardless of their user experience: high power consumption and short battery life. Look at the table below:
Although Pebbel's battery life is relatively good among these products, it can last for 5 to 7 days, and most of the rest of the models will have two or three days of battery life, even a one-day rhythm. There are three reasons for this dilemma. One is the size limitation of the equipment, the large-capacity battery cannot be equipped, or the lag of battery technology development. The second is the chip architecture and process technology. The third is the adaptation problem of the embedded system.
Battery technology has been in a state of stagnation for a long time
Not only wearable devices, but even mainstream smartphones have to extend battery life by increasing battery capacity. Although there are occasional battery technologies that sound like gods, such as lithium fluorocarbon (CFx) batteries, body heat generators that generate electricity directly through the body, they often claim to completely change the short life of wearable devices. It's just that it takes at least a year or two, even a good time, from the laboratory research to commercial use. The ideal is good, but it doesn't help. Of course, this type of technology is still worth looking forward to.
Chip architecture and process technology
The Junzheng JZ4775 processor commonly used by domestic manufacturers has a peak power consumption of 200mW, but the 65nm chip process leads to a larger package size. Junzheng chip still has a lot of market share in China, and has planned to adopt a more advanced 40nm process, but there is still a big gap with the current mainstream 28nm process. The rest of the models are mostly flat-panel or mobile-grade processors, and the limitations on the main frequency and the power control on the software ultimately fail to solve the fundamental problem. Device manufacturers integrate too many functions on smart watches, and even copy the design of smart phones. The low-power Cortex M3 architecture can't guarantee the smooth running of the system, so it can only sacrifice battery life.
The system is too bloated
Most models are streamlined and customized according to the existing Android system, and it is not suitable to change the clothes that are not fit. Only most manufacturers have no patience to wait for the official release of Android Wear, and there is no technology and energy to develop a system dedicated to smart watches. Pebble's performance at this point is more worthy of recognition. The direct result is the Pebble watch. Endurance performance is outstanding for 5 to 7 days.
Not only smart watches, but also the real popularity of wearable devices has a long way to go, and chip manufacturers are also beginning to develop low-power chips and put into production, Intel's Edison platform, Broadcom's BCM4771 GNSS SoC. In addition, Qualcomm And Samsung in April 2014, $17 million investment in wearable chip maker Ineda. Low-power SoCs are welcoming.
Low-power wearable technology: low power and sensing technology become the core
Components of the wearable device - CPU, MCU
The CPUs (processors) of today's high-end handheld devices have reached the milestone of eight cores and are faster. However, in order to reduce the power consumption of sensors in all-weather detection, collection and processing, many products have begun to work with MCU (microcontroller) as a motion-sensing dedicated coprocessor (MoTIon Co-processor).
In the application of wearable devices, the Sensor Hub MCU is mostly used, that is, the MCU of the ARM Cortex M series is used as the main controller to achieve high efficiency and low power consumption. For example, the Fitbit Wisdom Bracelet uses ST's STM32L151C6 Cortex-M3 low-power 16-bit 32MHz MCU and Jawbone UP smart bracelet with TI's MSP430F5528 16-bit 25MHz MCU. The Pebble smart watch uses ST's STM32F205RE Cortex-M3 architecture 32-bit 120MHz MCU, Sony SmartWatch SW2 also uses ST MCU, clock is 180MHz.
The two smart watches of the domestic wisdom device and the shell electronic are the Junzheng solutions. This year, Beijing Junzheng is pushing the ultra-low-power Newton platform. The new Newton platform is based on the MIPS architecture supporting Android. It is produced by Ingenic and equipped with a low-power JZ4775 CPU, providing at least 30 hours of battery life. Newton's low-power platform is bound to become an important weapon in the battlefield of the wearable and the Internet of Things.
As for Samsung's Galaxy Gear smart watch, it still uses its own Exynos 800MHz single-core CPU for sensing and processing. Unfortunately, the battery capacity is too small, it will be charged after 25 hours of continuous use, although the performance is strong, but the sustainability is not good, the market The reaction was cold. Therefore, Samsung's Gear 2 family, published in MWC, uses MCU design and can be used for 2 to 3 days. It can be seen that in order to reduce power consumption and increase battery life, more wearable products will be switched to MCUs as main processors in the future.
Components of wearable devices - MEMS, Sensor
In terms of sensors, the basic three somatosensory/dynamic sensing components currently deployed in wearable devices are electronic meters, three-axis gyroscopes, and accelerometers, which can be used for step counting, Detect heartbeat, physiological tracking, and more.
In terms of software technology, many manufacturers have developed their own patented algorithms for soft and hard products in wearable applications. For example, the Nike+ Running App (Running Training Program), Jawbone Up, and Fitbit series bracelets use FullPower's MoTIonX technology.
Want to know more about ST's low-power MCU, sensing technology and wireless technology, and Junzheng's low-power Newton platform solution, immediately pay attention to and participate in [ low-power MCU / processor in wearable devices ] technology salon.
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