Activity Monitor (Low-end)

Overview

Activity monitors (low-end) are devices that monitor a person's various daily activities. Unlike pedometers, activities other than walking, such as sitting at a desk or sleeping, can also be measured. This allows the number of calories consumed each day to be calculated. Thus, the use of activity monitors for health monitoring and dieting is spreading.

Since activity monitors need to be portable enough to be carried everywhere, small size and low power consumption for longer battery life are essential. In addition, since movements other than simple up-and-down motions need to be measured, the volume of data is very large and complicated calculations are required. The acceleration sensors contained in activity monitors may include 3-axis sensors that output complex analog signals, so the microcontroller needs to be able to support such types of communication methods.

The Renesas 78K0/Lx3 and R8C/Lx Series have low power consumption and are capable of performing the complicated calculations required by activity monitors. A high-speed on-chip oscillator helps reduce the main clock. Thanks to a built-in LCD drive circuit and peripheral functions such as a watchdog timer and a real-time clock, much fewer external parts than a pedometer are required, making more compact size and cost reduction possible.