Wearables
Wearables encompass a broad variety of products that inhabit our person gathering data and feeding data back to us for all sorts of different purposes.
Nordic-powered Bluetooth LE smartwatch delivers smart voice control
DO Technology’s ID206 smartwatch employs Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC to support Amazon Alexa Voice Service functionality
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Shenzhen, China-based smart wearables company Shenzhen DO Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd has selected Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth® 5.2/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC) to provide the core processing power and wireless connectivity for its ‘ID206’ smartwatch with ‘Alexa Built-In’.
The ID206 smartwatch features a 43mm (1.69”) LCD-HD color display screen, built-in microphone, heart rate and SpO2 (pulse oximeter) sensors, plus a three-axis gyroscope. The smartwatch can be used to remotely access the user’s smartphone, for example to receive call and text notifications, or control music playback functionality. The integration of Amazon’s Alexa provides the user with total hands-free control of smartwatch features, as well as remote control of other Alexa-enabled smart home devices.
Precision sensor data management
In addition, the waterproof ID206 also offers a host of additional functionality including 14 sports modes, sleep and stress monitoring, steps tracking, calorie consumption as well as distance detection. The smartwatch is powered by the nRF52840 SoC’s 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU), which provides ample computational power to run the complex sensor algorithms, allowing the smartwatch to precisely track and calculate health and activity data.
Many of our products use the nRF52840 SoC because its software has been extensively verified
An He, DO Technology
The smartwatch employs the Nordic SoC’s Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity to relay the sensor data to the ‘VeryFit’ app on the user’s Bluetooth 4.0 (or later) smartphone. From the app, users can view their exercise history, fitness statistics and achievements, in order to reach their goals more effectively. From the app the user can also log into their Amazon account to set up their AVS.
Ten days between recharge
The ID206 employs a 300mAh Li-Poly battery and can fully charged in 2.5 hours. Under normal usage conditions, the smartwatch can operate for 7-10 days between charges, thanks in part to the ultra low power operating characteristics of the Nordic nRF52840 SoC. The nRF52840 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with the nRF51 Series.
The nRF52840 SoC combines the Arm Cortex processor, with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, Long Range, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Zigbee, ANT™, IEEE 802.15.4, NFC, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software), featuring 8dBm output power -95dBm RX sensitivity for a link budget of 103dBm, with 1MB Flash memory and 256kB RAM. The Dynamic Multiprotocol feature uniquely supports concurrent wireless connectivity of the protocols. The SoC features 12Mbps Full Speed USB, and incorporates the Arm CryptoCell-310 cryptographic accelerator offering best-in-class security for Cortex-M based SoCs.
The nRF Connect Software Development Kit (SDK) is recommended for nRF52840 software development. The nRF Connect SDK integrates the Zephyr RTOS, supports applications using Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh and Thread, and includes examples, Bluetooth LE profiles and driver support for all peripherals. The SDK also includes a migration of Nordic’s Bluetooth SoftDevice Controller from the company’s proven SoftDevices used with the nRF52 Series. The nRF5 SDK can also be used for development with Nordic’s S113, S132 and S140 SoftDevices, Nordic’s Bluetooth RF protocol stacks.
“Many of our products use the nRF52840 SoC because its software has been extensively verified, is stable, rich in resources, and easy to develop with Nordic’s SDK,” says An He, founder and CEO of DO Technology. “The Flash, RAM, GPIO, QSPI and other resources are equally generous and met the design requirements of our ID206.
“Also, because battery life is such a key consideration when buying a smartwatch, the SoC’s ultra low power consumption was key to ensure this device can operate for a long time between charges.”
