Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

QTI Snapdragon™ Sensors Core (SSC)

Features for Linux Android
Application Note
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January 22, 2015

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Revision history

Revision Date Description

A May 2013
B Dec 2013
C Feb 2014
D Jan 2015
Initial release
Numerous changes were made to this document; it should be
read in its entirety.
Numerous changes were made to this document; it should be
read in its entirety.
Updated to include Android Lollipop features

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Contents

1 Introduction...................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Purpose.......................................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Conventions .................................................................................................................. 5
1.3 Technical assistance ...................................................................................................... 5

2 Motion Detection ............................................................................................. 6

3 Sensor Fusion and Sensor Calibration.......................................................... 7

4 Power Saving Feature ..................................................................................... 8

5 Gestures ........................................................................................................... 9

6 Activity Monitoring/Motion Classification ................................................... 10

7 Sensor-Enhanced Technologies .................................................................. 11

8 Sensor Ecosystem and Development Environment ................................... 12

9 Android Kitkat Optional Features ................................................................ 13

10 Android Lollipop Features .......................................................................... 14

A References..................................................................................................... 15
A.1 Acronyms and terms .................................................................................................. 15

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1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose
This document describes the high-level features offered by the Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
(QTI) Snapdragon™ Sensors Core (SSC) and identifies the sensors required for each of these
features. This document is intended for OEMs and ODMs who are interested in sensor
technologies and the complete SSC feature sets that QTI offers for current and future chipsets.

1.2 Conventions
Function declarations, function names, type declarations, and code samples appear in a different
font, e.g., #include.
Shading indicates content that has been added or changed in this revision of the document.

1.3 Technical assistance

For assistance or clarification on information in this document, submit a case to QTI at
https://support.cdmatech.com/.
If you do not have access to the CDMATech Support Service website, register for access or send
email to support.cdmatech@qti.qualcomm.com.

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2 Motion Detection

Feature Purpose Use-case scenarios First availability* Sensor(s) required

Absolute Motion  Reports stationary state when the
Detection (AMD) device is at absolute rest, e.g., on a
desk/table
 Makes use of the accelerometer
motion detect interrupt to further
reduce power
Relative Motion  Reports stationary state when the
Detection (RMD) device is not moving significantly with
respect to gravity
 Starting with MSM8974, also makes
use of the accelerometer motion detect
interrupt to further reduce power
*First availability implies the feature will be available on all future Qualcomm releases from the same chipset as well as all subsequent Qualcomm chipsets
that have the SSC unless otherwise specified.
 Conserves power by stopping services or MSM8960 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
reducing frequency of operation when
device is idle and in absolute rest state
 Allows sensors and other subsystems to
be shut down when device is stationary
 Can detect device stationary state relative MSM8960 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
to user when device is being held steadily
in the user’s hand
 Can be used by other algorithms,
e.g., gestures to detect motion of interest
such as picking up phone to answer a call

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3 Sensor Fusion and Sensor Calibration

Feature Purpose Use-case scenarios First availability Sensor(s) required

Sensor Fusion Significantly reduces power by  Generates rotation vector, gravity vector, All Sensors Fusion Accelerometer
running on the SSC performing 6-axis and 9-axis sensors linear acceleration, and orientation virtual sensors – Magnetometer
fusion on the SSC sensors MSM8974 LA 2.0 Gyroscope
 Supports new Android™ KitKat virtual
sensors, including Game Rotation Vector
(GRV) and Geomagnetic Rotation Vector
(GeoRV)
QGyroCal QTI designed and developed dynamic  Tracks and corrects sensor errors, e.g., MSM8960 LA 1.0 Gyroscope
calibration algorithm for gyroscope; low biases, over changing operating
power and validated across multiple environments
gyroscope parts from different vendors  Benefits
QMagCal QTI designed and developed dynamic  Ease of integration (preintegrated and MSM8974 LA 2.0 Accelerometer
calibration algorithm for magnetometer tested) Magnetometer
running on the SSC; low power and  Solution works across all sensor
validated across multiple magnetometer devices
parts from different vendors
 Low power enables background use
cases, e.g., 9-axis fusion, geomagnetic
rotation vector, pedestrian alignment, etc.

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4 Power Saving Feature

Sensor(s)
Feature Purpose Use-case scenarios First availability
required
Low Power Provides power savings for Android™ Maintains same response time/quality as MSM8974 LA 2.0 Accelerometer
Landscape/Portrait screen rotation algorithm using SSC native implementation on apps processor,
but with power savings
FIFO-Enabled Sensor Supports FIFO-enabled sensors and Significant power reduction for sensor MSM8974 LA 2.0 FIFO-enabled
Support reduces power consumption by allowing features by reducing the wake-up rate of accelerometer and
SSC to wake up less often SSC as well as reporting rate to sensor gyroscope
client; power reduction with features such
as pedometer, motion classification, sensor
fusion, and sensor calibration
µImage Enables low power always-on processing Significant power reduction for features that MSM8994 LA 1.0 Feature
by containing software execution to are always running in the background, e.g. dependent
within the SSC L2 cache itself, therefore AMD, RMD, Pedometer, etc.
reducing access to DDR memory

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5 Gestures

Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability Sensaor(s) required

Basic Gestures Provides the ability to detect a Push, Pull, or Used as UI motion controls, e.g., MSM8960 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
Shake gesture control apps such as photo browsers
 Push – Device is moved away from the user, and music players
in the direction perpendicular to the screen.
 Pull – Device is moved toward the user, in
the direction perpendicular to the screen
 Shake Left/Right – Device is moved left or
right (in portrait orientation)
 Shake Top/Bottom – Device is moved up or
down (in portrait orientation)
Facing Detects whether screen is facing up or facing Used as a UI motion control, e.g., can MSM8960 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
down while device is held relatively still be used to turn display on when
face-up and off when face-down
Tilt Reports angles of rotation about X, Y, and Z Used as a UI motion control, e.g., can MSM8960 LA 1.0 Gyroscope
axes, relative to a client-specified starting be used for panning home screens or
position moving across a zoomed photo
Bring to Ear (BTE) Detects if phone is brought to ear Used as a UI motion control, e.g., can MSM8960 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
be used to answer an incoming call Proximity (optional)

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6 Activity Monitoring/Motion Classification

Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability Sensor(s) required

Pedometer on the Reports step events and cumulative  Can be used to measure user’s step count MSM8974 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
SSC step count, as well as the estimated over a time interval
step rate.  Can be used to distinguish when user is
walking, running, or relatively stationary
Pedestrian Activity Reports changes in pedestrian Can be used to describe user’s activity MSM8974 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
Monitor on the SSC activity level over specific period. patterns throughout the day

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7 Sensor-Enhanced Technologies

Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability Sensor(s) required

Video – Camera Measures actual camera shake; does not  Removes jitter from video by performing MSM8960 LA 1.0 Gyroscope
Frame respond to movement of objects in Camera image stabilization in roll, pitch, and yaw
Synchronization view; used in QTI Electronic Image axes
Stabilization (EIS) implementation; for more  Removes rolling shutter effects due to
information, contact QTI’s Camera team. camera motion

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8 Sensor Ecosystem and Development Environment

Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability Sensor(s) required

OpenSSC Ability to support new drivers and customer  Easily supports new sensor types and MSM8974 LA 1.0 Any I2C, SPI
algorithms on the SSC. additional sensor parts sensors
 Supports customer algorithms
 To be used in conjunction with
DragonBoard™ for rapid bringup

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9 Android Kitkat Optional Features

Sensor(s)
Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability
required
Batching  Android KitKat release feature designed for power  Ideal for low-power, long-running use MSM8974 LA 2.0.1 Accelerometer
optimization by reducing apps wakeup rate. cases, e.g., fitness, location tracking,
 Enables apps processor to remain in a low power idle monitoring, etc.
state until sensor batches are delivered.  Up to 10,000 events
Step Count/  Step detector analyzes accelerometer input to Can be used for various step MSM8974 LA 2.0.1 Accelerometer
Step Detect recognize when the user has taken a step, then detect/count tracking apps with low
triggers an event with each step. power
 Step counter tracks the total number of steps since
the last device reboot and triggers an event with each
change in the step count.
Significant  Once enabled, Significant Motion Detection operates  Enables low power motion detection APQ8064 LA 1.64 Accelerometer
Motion even when device is asleep. for navigation/context awareness use
Detection on  It triggers when significant motion occurs and cases to all devices to sleep when not
the SSC automatically wakes up device. in significant motion state
 After notification, it automatically disables itself.  Low power geofencing
Uncalibrated Similar to magnetic field sensor type, but the hard iron Allows the client to perform custom APQ8064 LA 1.64 Magnetometer
Magnetomete calibration is not applied to the reported values; however, calibration using the reported
r hard iron bias values are returned separately in the result uncalibrated values and hard iron bias
parameters
Uncalibrated Similar to gyroscope sensor, but gyro-drift compensation Allows the client to perform custom APQ8064 LA 1.64 Gyroscope
Gyroscope is not applied to the reported values; however, gyro-drift calibration using the reported
bias values are returned separately in the result; factory uncalibrated values and gyro-drift bias
calibration and temperature compensation are still parameters
applied to values.

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10 Android Lollipop Features

NOTE: This chapter was added to this document revision.

Sensor(s)
Feature Purpose Use-case scenario First availability
required
CMC 2.0 Supports Android Lollipop Activity Supports tilt, still, walk, run, in-vehicle, and bicycle states MSM8994 LA 1.0 Accerelometer
Recognition APIs
Tilt Detector Triggers an event when the phone’s tilt is Detects if the user has moved the device into the viewing MSM8994 LA 1.0 Accelerometer
changed from its orientation at the time position
the feature was activated:
 By at least 35°
 For at least 2 sec
Wakeup Reduces AP wakeups to save power A type of low power sensor batching whereby batching is MSM8994 LA 1.0 Acccelerometer,
Sensors done when the AP is not active; batched data is sent to Gyroscope,
the AP when: Magnetometer,
 AP transitions to active (Normal and Wake-Up Ambient Light,
sensors) Proximity,
 Sensor buffer is full (Wake-Up sensors only) Pressure
 Report period arrives (Wake-Up sensors only)
Accurate Improves accuracy of timestamps Accurate timestamps are applied to all sensor samples MSM8994 LA 1.0 All Sensors
Timestamps

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A References

A.1 Acronyms and terms

Term Definition
AMD Absolute Motion Detection
BTE Bring To Ear
EIS Electronic Image Stabilization
RMD Relative Motion Detection
SSC Snapdragon Sensors Core

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