alps

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Alps Electric Smart Mouse Would Let Your Employer Monitor Your Stress Level

Alps Electric Smart Mouse Would Let Your Employer Monitor Your Stress Level

Work and life in general can be very stressful, and a Japanese company called Alps Electric wants to enable employers to monitor their staff mental stress level using a mouse that includes a “near-infrared spectroscopic sensor” reporting hemoglobin level, oxygen saturation and pulse, as well as an environmental sensor for temperature, humidity, etc… data. There’s no special way to use the mouse, and the end-user would just control the mouse normally. with all data apparently sent to a centralized system. The mouse  was demonstrated at Medtec Japan 2016, on April 20 to 22 in Tokyo. The sensor development is scheduled to end by Q1 2017, with samples shipping in the spring of 2017. There will certainly be ethical questions raised: Is that a welcome addition to the workplace to help employer better take care of their health, or a step too far and an invasion of privacy? Via Nikkei Technology […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Alps Electric Magnetic Field Sensor Measures 1.15 x 1.15 mm, Software Algo Adds Gyroscope Function

Alps Electric Magnetic Field Sensor Measures 1.15 x 1.15 mm, Software Algo Adds Gyroscope Function

I’m really impressed with the recent miniaturization of boards and components. Back in the days (in 2012), many people were amazed at the credit card size of the Raspberry Pi ARM Linux computer. Since then, we’ve seen many other ARM Linux board with similar or even smaller sizes, and on a broader scope, many smaller and smaller hardware and components: Olimex launched OLIMEXINO-85S Arduino compatible board about the size of a micro SD Card, eConais unveiled WiSmart EC19D Wi-Fi module measuring 8×8 mm, Freescale recently announced Kinetis KL03 Cortex M0+ MCU measuring 1.6 x 2.0 mm in its smallest package, etc… Today, I’ve come across another tiny chip, the world smallest magnetic field sensor by Alps Electric that measures only 1.15 x 1.15 x 0.56 mm. Height does matter too. It’s about 60% smaller than previous product by the company, but only slightly smaller than Asahi Kasei Microdevices’ AK09911C which measures 1.2 x […]

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