Last year at CES, Intel began its courtship with the wearables crowd, with the introduction of the SD card-sized Edison. Not long after, it purchased fitness tracker producer Basis Science. At the company’s CES Keynote, CEO Brian Krzanich revealed plans for the Intel Curie. The new dime-sized module utilizes the new Quark SE SoC, and is “purpose-built” for wearable devices.
The module is driven by a 32-bit Intel Quark microcontroller, and is designed with a variety of low-power features running on an open source real-time operating system (RTOS). Capabilities integrated into the unit, with no additional chipsets required, include computing, motion sensor, Bluetooth, and charging. Motion is tracked via a six-axis combination sensor with an accelerometer and gyroscope.
To allow developers and makers to hit the ground running, Intel will provide “IQ Software Kits” to developers interested in the Curie ecosystem. These kits are a set of pre-made programs, and features that will enable the sensors on the module. The “Body IQ” package allows for functions such as counting steps and automatically recognizing the activity the wearer is performing in real time, and the “Social IQ” package includes connectivity to smartphones and apps.
Intel plans to ship the Curie module in the second half of this year. Products with the module are expected by the first quarter of 2016.
