The market
The market value of the sensors exceeded the $ 70 billion mark in 2010. This market expects a growth rate of more than 10 % for the coming years. The car sensors will reach $ 15.8 billion by 2012, one of the most dynamic markets. Chemical sensors are expected to reach $ 17.3 billion by 2015. The global public electronics market is expected to reach $ 22.1 billion in 2015, with an annual growth rate of 12 %. Entertainment applications for sensors beat all other segments with strong growth of more than 16 % per year over the next five years. Image sensors represent the greatest value. The American sensor market is estimated at $ 10 billion, Europe exceeds $ 15 billion, excluding military applications. During this period of imminent recession, the sensor market remains one of the rare high -growth slots dominated by European and American companies. This is explained by the fact that military applications were originally at the source of this industry and financed its research and development. This explains the presence of companies like Northrop Grumman and Honeywell among the main world suppliers. However, the sensor market has seen the innovation force of medium -sized German companies controlled by the family like Robert Bosch (shock sensors for Airbags), First Sensor AG (designer of tailor -based sensors in Berlin), Pepperl +Fuchs (one of the leaders in electronic sensors) and almost 100 other suppliers of specialized sensors who are based in Germany. One of the main new areas of development concerns sensors based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), also known in Japan under the name of micro-machines. MEMS can measure between 20 micrometers (20 million times smaller than a meter) and a millimeter. These tiny systems can detect speed, acceleration, vibrations and shocks, which triggers air clearance in a bag to protect passengers from cars or trains. Applications based on MEMs now penetrate all sectors of the economy, from the forecast of earthquakes or volcanic rashes to the indicators of noise, vibration and hardness identifying the discomfort, including the measurements of Speed in sports watches, steps and distance counters for strollers for those who wish to monitor calories, pumps, fans, compressors and cooling towers, or assess brake yield. Thanks mainly to breakthroughs in the automotive sector, MEMS -based sensors can be as cheap as a dollar, while offering security and performance over long periods of time at a very competitive cost.
Innovation
The world of sensors is still at the embryonic stadium. Soon these devices will be ready to replace many products and systems considered to be modernity. The remote control, for example, based on batteries, will be replaced by gestures without the need for any device. The product which allows to achieve exactly this objective is already marketed by Gesture Studios (USA) which is the idea of John Underkoffler (MIT) which helped to design the equipment for GoodPoint. This presentation tool captures the movement and translates into electronically controlled actions. The PowerPoint presentation will never suffer any incompatibility with the remote control, when there is no longer a need for remote control. This innovation will change the way consumers will interact with domestic electronics. Intel is developing an advanced formation of motion capture that will wave on a TV to increase or lower the volume, or change its chain. This will allow 5 years to start eradicating remote controls for domestic audiovisual systems and replacing these devices with gestural recognition without the need for special or gloves. Intel develops nothing less than a body monitoring system. Their interest is to stimulate demand for a new generation of semiconductors and super processors. However, the capture of movement is complex, and this field of innovation requires a new way of detecting acceleration and movement in order to be more efficient and precise than the current standard. Santosh Kumar has made an accelerated career at Siemens in India, where he developed a code for telecommunications switches. He decided to leave his well -paid job and continue a doctorate in computer science and engineering at Ohio State University where he graduated in 2006. He realized that many sensors require the integration of the Miniaturization (MEMS) and low -power wireless communication technology to solve real problems. As most of the pursuit devices that are now common remains connected to a satellite, these devices are high battery and are subject to the loss of signal. The Kumar team has decided to develop a small printed circuit (led by Professor Prabal Dutta of the University of Michigan), a wireless sensor with a dollar, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a connection to a GSM phone or a radio and support software. The core detection equipment (accelerometer and gyroscope) works according to the simple principles of physics by monitoring 6 degrees of freedom of movement. We could even add a magnetic compass to reach 9 degrees of freedom for total perfection. These units could one day operate without batteries, which therefore represents an innovation in accordance with the principles of the blue economy. It is a platform technology with hundreds of potential applications replacing "something with nothing".
The first cash flow
Kumar then created commercial products. The first is called "Autowitness", a localization device for burglars. When this tracker is fixed on a computer or table, it detects movements and distinguishes the flight, cleaning and maintenance of the house. If the stolen object is found in a car, the sensor signals all movements on largely available public cellular networks, as well as geographic coordinates. The system sends a text message to the police to tell him the exact location of the car. The ease of use and the low cost prompted the police services of Memphis and Jackson (Tennessee) to test these devices. This invention has earned Kumar the recognition of Popular Science Magazine as one of the best brilliant scientists in the United States within 38 years. Meanwhile, he was appointed professor to be the University of Memphis where he heads the laboratory of wireless sensors and ad hoc mobile networks (Wise Manet). He devoted himself to theoretical research and practical applications for commercial purposes. Kumar is one of the few scientists to bridge the bridge between fundamental science and the pragmatic implementation of projects.
The opportunity
Using similar technology, Santosh Kumar's team has designed a second application called "autosense". This tiny device is worn under clothes and monitors stress levels by simultaneously measuring breathing, heart rate and physical activity. The software applications of a smartphone allow doctors to individually follow each patient in treatment, knowing if it is inside, outside, if it speaks or smokes. Information is processed to allow the identification of stress so that doctors can anticipate the susceptibility and relapse to addictive behavior. The first application focuses on monitoring dependent on drugs. This project sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) makes it possible to detect stress, desires for smoking and panic attacks without the need for permanent and personal surveillance. One of the unique characteristics of this research is that it forges collaboration between various disciplines such as IT, electronic engineering, mathematicians, psychologists, behavioral specialists, physiologists, anthropologists, biochemists and Physicists. The integration of sciences will change the mode of operation of planes, the operation of video games and the way in which advertising will encourage us to watch the latest product releases like Adidas, the sportswear group demonstrated it with interactive advertisements On the snowflakes of metro stations in New York. The falling snowflakes turn into a city silhouette by sliding your hand into the air, and the flakes are sent to a spiral by waving both hands. MEMS technology piloted by gyroscope provided by Asahi Kasei Microsystems (AKM) of Japan for the iPhone4 has so much impressed Steve Jobs by its ability to detect orientation changes that it is now a standard feature for Apple. The microscopic version of a vibratory gyroscope combined with a MEMS and a chip which is said to have been designed for this purpose by Stmicroelectronics offers iPhone4 and iPads2 unique characteristics for which there are few applications today. The gyroscope, originally invented by Johann Bohnenberger in 1817 and made famous by Leon Foucault, who used it to see the rotation of the earth, is now converted into a central room that will turn the imagination of thousands of entrepreneurs for the decades to come. It is not surprising that a visionary as Steve Jobs saw him coming and made him standard in his latest product trips.
