mCube: a miniature accelerometer of a new type that can even turn clothes into a fitness tracker

The mCube company announced a chip of the same name, a new type of accelerometer, which, at a very small size, differs from its counterparts by a lower power consumption.

The thickness of the mCube is just a millimeter, which is about half the size of a normal accelerometer. In addition, the developers claim that their chip is more accurate, more economical in terms of energy consumption than traditional accelerometers, and costs less.
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Accelerometers usually consist of two functional elements: a mechanical device that senses motion / vibration, and a chip that converts all of this into electrical signals, passing information into the overall circuit of the device.

The mCube developers managed to fit both components into a single chip, while not only reducing the size of the element itself, but also improving the sensitivity of the system. The developers claim that the mCube is able to replace the traditional gyroscope in mobile devices, which will allow even the cheapest models of smartphones to be equipped with motion sensors.

It should be noted that mCube is not a theoretical development, 70 million of these chips have already been shipped to Chinese manufacturers of mobile devices, so very soon such devices with mCube will appear on the market. The chip maker recently received $ 37 million in investment, and is set to scale production, expanding to other markets.

Integrating the mCube accelerometer into clothing is the company's long-term goal. Due to its small size, this chip can be placed in any sportswear, including socks, and turn clothing into a fitness tracker. Of course, such a system will not measure the pulse, but it is quite able to track the quality and accuracy of the impact when playing golf.

Via technologyreview