Sensor fusion promises to significantly enhance automotive safety.

Imagine an entire array of inexpensive sensors that monitor sound, temperature, vision and more, just like your own senses do. Now provide this sensor system with enough intelligence to decide whether an input justifies taking action or whether it was just something going bump in the night.

This rapidly advancing technology is known as sensor fusion, and it already enables a smartphone to integrate input from a magnetometer, a gyroscope and an accelerometer on all three axes. Add the intelligence of analytics, and fusion could make everyone safer and more secure, whether at home, at work or in the car.

TI’s next-generation digital signal processors (DSPs) are key enablers of such sensor fusion, especially their ability to handle input from many sensors at once. TI advancements put the company on the cusp of having the technology that could make this sensor fusion a reality.

• Already engineers are fusing audio and video inputs so that when a microphone detects breaking glass, for example, a camera looks in the direction of the sound.
• When applied to robotics, sensor fusion will enable robots to interact with their environment in much more sophisticated ways.
• No longer will automotive engineers have to decide which sensory tool to use to address an issue such as collision avoidance. Instead all vehicles will have sensors for radar, imaging, position and much more, and those information sources will be fused to produce the best understanding of what’s happening – whether it’s under the hood or in the next lane – and what needs to be done.

Much of what TI has done over the years has been to develop innovative technology that then enables innovation by others. As programmers and design engineers develop uses for this technology, many new applications are expected to emerge for sensor fusion technology.