NXP Semiconductors has combined ultra-wide-band (UWB) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to deliver spatial awareness to the Samsung Galaxy S21+ and S21 Ultra smartphones for the SmartThings Find service. NXP’s Trimension UWB platform has been applied for accurately locating personal items – such as backpacks, wallets and keys. With the Galaxy SmartTag+ using NXP’s Trimension UWB and BLE, users can take advantage of augmented reality (AR) technology to visually guide them towards their missing item using their smartphone’s camera.
“Precision combined with security is the foundation for a host of new use cases. NXP’s Trimension technology helps deliver precision when it counts and enables new and future possibilities,” said Rafael Sotomayor, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Connectivity and Security for NXP Semiconductors.
SmartThings Find is a new service within the SmartThings application, available on select Galaxy devices, featuring powerful detection capabilities that help users find the things that matter most, near or far.
“SmartThings Find is a simple and visual solution that will help you easily locate your favorite items. With the added advantage of using AR in conjunction with maps and sounds to guide you back to your devices with a Galaxy SmartTag+ attached, the SmartThings Find experience has become even more powerful: it makes people’s everyday lives easier, more convenient and safer,” said Inkang Song, Vice President & Head of Technology Strategy Group, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “The key to our innovative offering on SmartTag+ is NXP’s UWB fine-ranging technology, which makes it possible to lock onto the position of an object with greater precision.”
NXP UWB IC, Trimension SR040 is optimised to enable IoT applications, including smart locks and real-time location system (RTLS) tags, delivering ‘relative position’ with a very high level of accuracy. NXP’s QN9090 Bluetooth LE microcontrollers provide a wireless interface for sideband communication, configuration and activation used by the location service.
