We’ve spent a lot of time articulating the many benefits of SPARK UWB technology here at this blog. It’s high time we showed you the technology in action!
We’re delighted to share a library of video demonstrations showcasing SPARK UWB technology for a wide range of industrial and consumer applications. Beginning with an Introduction to SPARK Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology, this video series helps visualize the myriad advantages delivered with SPARK UWB short-range wireless connectivity: High data rates, ultra-low latency and precise positioning/ranging – all with extremely low power consumption.
What do we mean exactly when we talk about extreme low power? Check out this Battery-less, Wireless Sensor demonstration with our partner UBITO featuring a door/window-mounted sensor that wirelessly communicates status updates (position, temperature and time) using power harvested solely from the mechanical motion of the door or window opening and closing. Get a close-up view of the transmit and receive (T/R) units operating on only 75 nanojoules of energy – no batteries required.
For an up-close look at a next-generation Wireless IoT Sensor, we offer a demonstration showing a SPARK UWB-powered IoT sensor transmitting positioning, distance/range and light exposure data to a video monitor display. Every movement of the sensor is monitored and visualized in real time.
A Proximity Sensing demonstration highlights SPARK UWB’s low power proximity detection and sensing capabilities leveraging a SPARK reference platform that consumes a mere 50 microwatts of power. The dynamic proximity data is visualized in real time, and it’s a delight for anyone who’s ever envisioned next generation access and control apps – vehicle and e-bike keys, for example – whereby two devices can sense the distance between each other with precision accuracy.
You’ll also find a demonstration of SPARK UWB High Data Rate capabilities featuring two smartphones exchanging high quality, real-time video feeds over a high bandwidth UWB wireless link at a rate of 6 megabits per second. When was the last time you did this using Bluetooth? Trick question. You can’t. And compared to Wi-Fi, the UWB approach consumes a lot less power.
Featured among the videos is a gaming mouse platform delivering polling rates of up to 8,000 samples per second with the requisite latency that competing technologies simply can’t achieve – lower than 400 microseconds, which is comparable to the optical sensor itself. In this SPARK UWB Gaming Mouse demonstration, you see the 8K Hz polling rate visualized in real time as the mouse changes position – with the hardware reference design that makes it possible.
With our new Audio Headset demonstration, you’ll get a great look at our reference platform, but the audio quality advantage is best understood when you hear it for yourself! Amazing-sounding, lossless audio quality can now be achieved without wires, and you don’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate all that you’ve been missing up until now with legacy Bluetooth wireless audio.
The Audio Headset demo illustrates the way forward for achieving audio bit depths up to 24 bits and sample rates up to 96 kHz wirelessly. There’s no compression or decompression needed or applied, and the raw audio data is transmitted with latency as low as 5 milliseconds. SPARK UWB makes this possible.
Not only is this good news for music fans, it’s good news for musicians themselves! Check out the Wireless Musical Instruments demonstration, featuring a UWB-equipped electric guitar outputting wirelessly to an amplifier with no discernible latency lags or sound quality compromises. This makes it possible for musicians to practice and perform without physical cables encumbering their movement.
For innovative product designers eager to leverage the SPARK UWB advantage, we invite you to get started today! To this end, we’ve also featured a SPARK UWB Evaluation Kit demonstration video that showcases the design features and components included within, targeted for apps like high-quality audio and ranging. The Evaluation Kit also equips you to configure and customize wireless link properties – including payload, packet data rates and more – optimized for your specific target app.
Be sure to visit and follow our YouTube channel for the full library of SPARK video demonstrations, and plan ahead to visit with us at CES 2024 for a closer look at SPARK UWB in action via live demos and much more!
SPARK UWB Makes History in Industry’s First UWB Powered Consumer Audio Devices