CES: Maxim shows heart, turns up volume on audio

SAN FRANCISCO--Analog semiconductor firm Maxim Integrated was certainly not giving off mixed-signals at CES 2013, demonstrating its intent to focus in on some of the key technology trends rocking the industry. With applications in audio, healthcare and automotive, Maxim exhibited the importance of microcontrollers in virtually anything connected.

As it did at the Electronica convention in Munich back in November, Maxim showed off its Cardio Leaf t-shirt to demonstrate the integration of sensors with the analog technology that controls them and processes their data.

Not that Maxim intends to sell t-shirts, of course, but the prototype serves to show possible applications for being able to monitor heart rate and cardiovascular health using a microcontroller, power management, and a Bluetooth transmitter to send the information to a screen in an elegant, almost seamless way.

The company also paraded its audio products, notably the FlexSound configuration applications tool, a programmable set of digital audio signal processing blocks used in Maxim's products to provide or enhance audio functions such as compression, limiting, or equalization. The FlexSound system even includes a programmable DSP core, hard-wired digital macros, and an associated memory architecture.

Check out the video for a look at how it all works.


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