British chipmaker CSR launched what it calls the world’s first integrated Bluetooth HD audio chipset platform with support for ambient noise cancellation. Its CSR8675 audio flash platform is designed for high-end wireless audio products, it said. It has more processing power that its predecessor chipset, the CSR8670, "allowing manufacturers to deliver enhanced quality audio output and noise cancellation for high-end speakers, soundbars, stereo headsets and gaming headphones," CSR said. "Audiophiles looking to buy the highest quality audio devices crave exceptional sound quality together with the convenience of wireless connectivity," it said. "The CSR8675 offers customers new processing power and a platform upon which they can significantly differentiate their high-end products while delivering a truly immersive listening experience to the end user."

The market for non-glass capacitive sensors is projected to exceed $35.1 million by 2020, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. Non-glass capacitive sensors are thin, lightweight, scratch-resistant and claim high conductivity with low power consumption, said MarketsandMarkets. Capacitive sensing is used in sensors including touch, position and motion to detect parameters including position, proximity, pressure and displacement, it said. The growth of capacitive sensors is faster than other sensing technologies including resistive, infrared and acoustic due to accuracy in measurement, ease of operation and longer lifespan, it said.

The market for sensors used in smartphones and tablets is forecast to triple for the 2012-2018 period, driven by competition between Apple and Samsung for sensor dominance, said a report from IHS Technology (http://bit.ly/10qLhmA). Worldwide market revenue for sensors used in smartphones and tablets will rise to $6.5 billion in 2018, from $2.3 billion in 2012, with the fastest growth coming from emerging devices whose revenue will reach $2.3 billion in 2018, IHS said. “The mobile market is moving beyond simply integrating established devices like motion sensors and now is including next-generation features like fingerprint and environment/health sensors,” said Marwan Boustany, IHS senior analyst for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors. Established sensors in mobile devices include motion sensors, light sensors and MEMS microphones, while emerging sensors include fingerprint, optical pulse, humidity, gas, ultraviolet (UV) and thermal imaging. Apple initiated the market for fingerprint sensors in mobile devices with the release of the iPhone 5s in 2013, and IHS predicts shipments of fingerprint-enabled devices will reach 1.4 billion units in 2020. The fingerprint sensor market “has all its requirements for success converging at the right time,” Boustany said, citing Apple Pay and the growing number of banks supporting mobile payments and biometric authentication. Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and Huawei’s Ascend Mate 7 also sport fingerprint sensors, IHS said. Meanwhile, Samsung pioneered the use of humidity sensors in the Galaxy S4, a pulse sensor in the S5 and a UV sensor in the Note 4, and IHS expects Chinese smartphone OEMs to be the next driver for the new generation of sensors. Humidity sensors have been used in Chinese handsets since 2011, and air-quality sensors are expected to find growing usage in the China market, IHS said, citing specific demand for sensors that can detect particle pollution in large Chinese cities. Thermal imagers using microbolometer sensors emerged from the technology of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems in 2014 as accessories for the iPhone 5s, but it will take several years before they’ll be incorporated into phones due to cost, IHS said. Samsung is expected to adopt gas/chemical sensors in the Note 6 for introduction in 2016 when the technology is more mature and use cases have been clearly defined, IHS said.

The FCC shouldn't grant a waiver of home networking output rules for cable operators that use TiVo set-top boxes, said standards body Digital Living Network Alliance (http://bit.ly/1wtQzt9) in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 97-80. TiVo had asked for the waiver in a petition (http://bit.ly/1vJGlFR), saying DLNA had taken too long to create a standard for home networking interfaces. TiVo’s equipment doesn’t conform to the goals or requirements of the rules and shouldn't receive a waiver, DLNA said. TiVo disagreed, saying that the commission should grant the waiver. “Consumers who lease TiVo products from their cable operators already enjoy the benefits of home networking that the rule seeks to enable,” TiVo said. “Under these circumstances, strict compliance with the rule would serve no public interest benefit.” Rather than granting the waiver, the FCC should rule that the home networking requirement was invalidated by the EchoStar decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, NCTA said. “The market has been providing far more investment, innovation and consumer choice in technological approaches to sharing programming than a government technology mandate can.” If a waiver is granted, it should be industrywide rather than specific to TiVo, NCTA said.

Qualcomm Atheros launched the QCA9377 11ac 2.0 + Bluetooth combination chip with Qualcomm multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology for notebooks, TVs, cameras and other CE devices that connect to increasingly crowded Wi-Fi networks. The single-stream 11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 combo chip is said to provide superior Wi-Fi performance with reduced power consumption. Qualcomm VIVE networking technology using Qualcomm’s MU | EFX 802.11ac 2.0 technology (http://bit.ly/1s40EXy) is said to support more simultaneous devices while delivering connection speeds for CE equipment that are up to three times faster than current technology. At Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam this week, Qualcomm is showing an over-the-air live demonstration of the technology with a FRITZ!Box router and Qualcomm Atheros MU-MIMO chipset, it said Tuesday. Qualcomm VIVE-enabled networks with MU | EFX can multitask with devices simultaneously to make better use of wireless capacity that is wasted in Wi-Fi networks serving one device at a time, Qualcomm said. The system will enable consumers to access and enjoy 4K video, gaming and “other latency-sensitive activities by delivering reliable high-performance connectivity," said Cristiano Amon, co-president-Qualcomm Technologies. The QCA9377 is sampling now and will be available in production quantities later this year, Qualcomm said.

Time Warner Cable will release an advanced set-top box with “dramatically improved” DVR capacity and features in New York City and Los Angeles by the end of the year, TWC said in a release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1w4IjkJ) The box, called Enhanced DVR, will allow customers to “simultaneously record up to six different programs and enjoy up to six times more storage than their current DVR,” the release said. Enhanced DVR will have a 1-terabyte hard drive with the ability to save 150 hours of HD programming, and its functions can be used on “up to four other HD set-top boxes in the home,” the release said.

Rentrak received a patent for a system that measures when a set-top box is on while the TV it's attached to is off, said Rentrak in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1t532CE). “This is an important component of Rentrak's massive and passive ratings service, which will soon measure 60 million” such boxes for live and DVR viewing, said the release. Knowing when the box is on and the TV is off is “crucial” to using STBs to measure viewing, because it often occurs, Rentrak said.