Three axes in one device [News Briefs]

To orient themselves properly, smartphones require not just GPS capability but also an electronic compass, an accelerometer, and increasingly, digital gyroscopes, which can sense changes in an object´s axis of rotation. up until now, gyroscopes measured movement around the three axes with three sensors-one for pitch, one for yaw, and another for roll. But in February, Stmicroelectronics unveiled a 4- by 4- by 1-millimeter gyroscope whose single sensing structure tracks all three angular motions. the device draws only 6 milliamps; two years ago, each one of ST´s single-axis devices drew 5 mA.