MEMS group looks to promote open source development

MIG executive director Karen Lightman said: "When companies are developing products that use MEMS/sensors, they often have to develop algorithms from scratch. This inhibits innovation by compelling designers to reinvent the wheel on common algorithms every time they want to add or change functionality in their product. Giving them access to an open-source library of introductory algorithms fundamentally changes the development paradigm. Product designers can use field-proven, open-source algorithms supplied by MIG member companies to jumpstart their development process, enabling them to gain all the benefits of MEMS/sensors that much faster." One of the first companies to support the initiative is Freescale, which contributing sensor fusion software, as well as its sensor fusion development kit and additional development technology based on the Freedom development platform (pictured). "Sensor fusion is a fundamental building block for today's secure embedded processing solutions. Although it has been in the market for several years, sensor fusion has so far been kept proprietary, and this has unnecessarily slowed its broader adoption," said Babak Taheri, general manager of Freescale's sensor solutions division. "With our comprehensive development tools and support for AIC's open source initiative, Freescale will help even more developers and systems designers unleash the benefits of sensor fusion technology, ultimately leading to the creation of compelling new IoT products and services." Other supporters of AIC include Analog Devices and Carnegie Mellon University, with more MIG members expected to contribute to the inititiative in the near future.