Wacom, STMicroelectronics, and CEVA Collaborate to Enhance the Digital Pen Experience

CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies and integrated IP solutions and an ST Authorized Partner, together with STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and Wacom Co., Ltd, the global leader and a key innovator in digital pen technology, today announced their collaboration to develop an enhanced digital pen experience with a new, wireless sensor module that extends the digital pen’s functionality through advanced gesture, cursor, and motion control. The combined effort leverages the specialized capabilities of the three companies to create an advanced, sensor-enabled digital pen that can be adopted by OEMs to add value to their smartphone, tablet, notebook, PC, interactive whiteboard or other smart-display products.

The “Active ES^® (AES) Rear IMU Module” combines Wacom’s digital pen technology together with a custom version of ST’s low-power 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit sensor and Bluetooth Low Energy System-on-Chip (SoC), along with CEVA’s MotionEngine™ Air motion-control software. The result is a low-power, highly compact design suitable for integration into any digital pen form factor. With support for motion-based pointing, gesture control, and 3D motion tracking, OEMs can customize the module reference design to enable a host of new applications, user conveniences, and features. The sensor-enabled digital pen can also serve as a wireless presentation controller that can control the on-screen cursor with natural hand movements. It can also be programmed to replace complex series of menus and taps with a single gesture. The software features CEVA’s patented orientation compensation and adaptive tremor-removal technology, ensuring a highly consistent and intuitive user experience across a wide range of applications.

Wacom is the first company developing a product with these advanced capabilities in an AES Pen. The AES Rear IMU Module is targeted as a plug-and-play module accessory that seamlessly works with Wacom’s AES digital pens with the applicable module connector. The use of sensors in the AES Rear IMU Module significantly raises productivity as well as simplifies and streamlines the workflows of business people, students, and more. The AES Rear IMU Module’s ability to control devices naturally, and at a distance, allows previously individual experiences to become communal and collaborative.

Sayatake Komine, Wacom’s EVP Heading Technology Solution Business Unit, stated: “We’re consistently looking to enhance the digital pen experience for our customers and our collaboration with ST and CEVA expands the functionality of the pen in a myriad of powerful ways. Gestures, pointing, and motion control provide a natural user interface that perfectly complement our digital pens and our AES Rear IMU Module allows sensor-based features and applications to be seamlessly added to our AES pen lineup.”

“Digital pen adoption is growing at an impressive rate and should continue, driven by innovative use cases and the increasing numbers of technologies that can be packed inside the pens,” said Simone Ferri, Consumer MEMS Business Unit Director, STMicroelectronics. “The accuracy and small size of our IMU sensor and BLE SoC offer the ideal form factor to bring sensing and connectivity to the digital pen, and the reference design makes these technologies available to a wide spectrum of Wacom’s customers.”

Chad Lucien, Vice President and General Manager of the Sensor Fusion Business Unit at CEVA stated: “We’re excited to collaborate with Wacom and ST to bring our MotionEngine™ Air software to the digital pen market. The compact code size of our software allows it to run on the BLE MCU and provides unrivalled precision and control for motion-based applications. The innovative product we’re bringing to market as a result of this collaboration ensures that OEMs have a production-proven design they can customize at the application level to differentiate their motion-sensing digital pen design.”

You can watch a video demonstrating the advanced capabilities of a motion-sensing digital pen at https://youtu.be/4HpPTjFIqBk

About Wacom
Founded in 1983, Wacom is a global company based in Japan with subsidiaries and affiliate offices around the world to support marketing and distribution in over 150 countries and areas. It is the world’s leading manufacturer of pen tablets, interactive pen displays and digital interface solutions. The advanced technology of Wacom’s intuitive input devices has been used to create some of the most exciting digital art, films, special effects, fashion and designs around the world and provides business and home users with their leading interface technology to express their personality. The company also offers its products as OEM solutions to leading manufacturers serving incremental markets. Wacom’s interface technology, called Wacom Feel IT technologies, is also offered as an integrated solution to strategic partners. Most tablet device and PC manufacturers count on the advanced features and reliability to deliver a superior user interface experience. For further information about the products of Wacom see www.wacom.com.

About STMicroelectronics
At ST, we are 48,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An independent device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of the Internet of Things and 5G technology. ST is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2027. Further information can be found at http://www.st.com/.

About CEVA, Inc.
CEVA is the leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies and integrated IP solutions for a smarter, safer, connected world. We provide Digital Signal Processors, AI engines, wireless platforms, cryptography cores and complementary software for sensor fusion, image enhancement, computer vision, voice input and artificial intelligence. These technologies are offered in combination with our Intrinsix IP integration services, helping our customers address their most complex and time-critical integrated circuit design projects. Leveraging our technologies and chip design skills, many of the world’s leading semiconductors, system companies and OEMs create power-efficient, intelligent, secure and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, robotics, industrial, aerospace & defense and IoT.

Our DSP-based solutions include platforms for 5G baseband processing in mobile, IoT and infrastructure, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low-power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For sensor fusion, our Hillcrest Labs sensor processing technologies provide a broad range of sensor fusion software and inertial measurement unit (“IMU”) solutions for markets including hearables, wearables, AR/VR, PC, robotics, remote controls and IoT. For wireless IoT, our platforms for Bluetooth (low energy and dual mode), Wi-Fi 4/5/6/6E (802.11n/ac/ax), Ultra-wideband (UWB), NB-IoT and GNSS are the most broadly licensed connectivity platforms in the industry.

Visit us at www.ceva-dsp.com and follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

For more information, contact:

Wacom
Wacom Co., Ltd Corporate Communication Office
Tel: +81-3-5337-6702
wacom-pr@wacom.co.jp

STMicroelectronics
Michael Markowitz
Director Technical Media Relations
Tel: +1 781 591 0354
michael.markowitz@st.com

CEVA
Richard Kingston
CEVA, Inc.
+1 650-417-7976
richard.kingston@ceva-dsp.com

Joyce Yip
Publitek for CEVA
+44 7967 765798
joyce.yip@publitek.com