Tiny IMU Tracks The Motion Of Anything!
This Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is just about the smallest one we’ve ever seen. With an accelerometer and gyroscope operating at up to 6.7 kHz and a Time-of-Flight sensor, the Tracer from elektroThing will give you the orientation of anything you strap it to, streaming signals back to your phone.
The idea behind the Tracer is to stick an IMU on any object to trace its pose and motion. This can mean anything from taking a mountain bike off a sweet jump, the motion of a tennis racket or golf club when taking a swing, or simply just strapping it to a glove for a new-Power Glove for the metaversal revolution.
To do accomplish all of this, the Tracer uses an IMU capable of measuring acceleration at ±4/4/6/16 g at 1.6 Hz to 6.7 kHz, and measuring position with a gyroscope at ±125/250/500/1000/2000 DPS at 12.5 Hz to 6.7 kHz. Also on board is a Time-of-Flight sensor that is able to measure absolute distances up to 2m.
But sensors alone do not a tracker make, and for talking to the outside world the Tracer uses an ESP32-PICO-D4 to provide WiFi and Bluetooth. All of this is powered by a coin cell battery and should be good for a few hours of runtime. More than enough to get the readings you need, at least.
Of course, the Tracer is programmable with Micropython and Arduino, and fully supports Phyphox to stream IMU readings directly to your phone.