Ask any Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you that the most important factor in a technology product’s success is speed to market. You need to start revenues flowing as quickly as possible, and prevent competitors from beating you to the market. Given all the hardware and software components required for a wearable device, however, companies face an enormous hurdle when trying to assemble all the technology needed for a new product.
That’s the problem ON Semiconductor hopes to solve. The company has announced a kit designed to help engineers design new wearable products. The Wearable Development Kit (WDK1.0) is a collection of components to speed the design process. It includes power control, wireless charging, and a 32-bit ARM processor. It has MEM-based inertial measurement unit with 3-axis gyroscope and 3-axis accelerometer tracking, and a temperature sensor. A transceiver supports Bluetooth and other wireless data communications, and a 128 by 128 pixel LCD panel serves as a display. There is even a smartphone app that can process fitness data gathered by the device, in both Android and iOS versions. The system is designed to make it easy to add other functions, such as GPS, or additional sensors.
Reference kits like the WDK1.0 make it easier for companies — especially small startups with limited resources — develop new products quickly. The ON Semiconductor kit provides a head start for the creation of new wearable devices that are ready for scalable production.
