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| Thread ID: 94987 | 2008-11-19 21:14:00 | Accelerometer chips - Is this true? | Scouse (83) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 721457 | 2008-11-19 21:14:00 | Quote from the Economist, September 27 2008, page 85: "If you drop your laptop computer, a chip built in to it will sense the acceleration and protect the delicate moving parts of its hard disk before it hits the ground." Sounds a bit like wishful thinking to me....... :confused: |
Scouse (83) | ||
| 721458 | 2008-11-19 21:18:00 | True - but not perfected yet. :thumbs: | wratterus (105) | ||
| 721459 | 2008-11-19 21:29:00 | and only in some laptops currently... | johcar (6283) | ||
| 721460 | 2008-11-20 03:23:00 | It does work though, just not sure how effective it is. | beeswax34 (63) | ||
| 721461 | 2008-11-20 04:36:00 | Tha same article explains that researchers at Stanford University are putting the same accelerometer chips to a new use, detecting earthquakes, using those already in laptops and iPhones, on a network called Quake-Catcher. | Scouse (83) | ||
| 721462 | 2008-11-20 07:24:00 | @beeswax-Its very effective, we use laptops with those features at school and even though everyone runs around with their laptop on there's hardly any failures:p | Blam (54) | ||
| 721463 | 2008-11-21 03:26:00 | The chips are magical: they use tiny silicon cantilevers and work by measuring the changes in capacitance as they move in response to acceleration . The package is 3x2x1 mm . A Google search for "MMA7361L" will find descriptions and data sheets for the devices made by Freescale . The three-axis ones give outputs depending on the acceleration in each direction, and they even have a "zero-G" output which indicates freefall . |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 721464 | 2008-11-21 05:31:00 | They can only be described as magical when and if they work to perfection,this I think is not the case as yet. | Cicero (40) | ||
| 721465 | 2008-11-21 06:11:00 | Sudden motion sensors (en.wikipedia.org) have been in Apple notebooks for about 4 years now. See Smackbook (www.youtube.com), a useless POC. |
sal (67) | ||
| 721466 | 2008-11-21 07:10:00 | I can understand detecting & measuring acceleration, but where does the protection come in? If I put one of these chips in my pocket and walk out a fourth floor window, will Superman arrive and catch me before I hit the ground? |
Jayess64 (8703) | ||
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