Motion Sensor Markets

June 14, 2012, Invensense Motion Conference, San Francisco—Jérémie Bouchaud from iSuppli reviewed the motion sensing market and projected future growth for the industry. The industry seems to be in good shape and has potential for continued growth.

Historically, sensors really took off when the Wii entered the market in '06, followed by the first iPhone in '07. Prior to this, Analog Devices started with motion sensors before '98. Other gaming accessories and games had some capabilities, but motion sensing was not the core function of the game. The few games with motion interfaces did not do well.

Accelerometers appeared in cell phones in '03 for a pedometer in a Fujitsu phone for DoCoMo. The following year, Vodaphone had a sensor for auto screen rotation and Samsung had motion-based navigation. Some early feature phones included some capabilities for gaming with Nokia in '04, and LG and Samsung in '05.

The motion sensing in the Wii and iPhone were successful because of the overall implementation. Nintendo made an accelerometer the heart of the controller and created games that were centered around the motion controller. Apple made image rotation and motion sensing easy and popular, causing all of the other phone makers to follow.

Altimeters appeared in a Telit phone in '02, followed by the Samsung B2700 in '08 and moved into tablets in the Motorola Xoom in '11. The added value for the altimeter is to aid the GPS in finer z-axis information, leading to indoor navigation in the near future.

The spectrum of motion sensing is growing, from accelerometers in the first iPhone to full 9-axis combination accelerometer-gyroscope-magnetometer sensors in the latest devices. The market for handset and tablet motion sensors is expected to grow from about $1B last year to over $2B in '15. In that time, pressure sensors will account for almost a quarter of a billion all by themselves.

Phones and tablets are not the only markets. Other systems that use motion sensors include gaming, laptops, cameras, toy helicopters, MP3 players, and many others. All together, these applications add an additional $1B to the '16 forecast. But not all markets are growing. The gaming controller and hand-held game platform markets are saturating.

The smart TVs are getting full motion sensors for the remote controls. The ability to use motion controls for the TV is gaining credence as most users are familiar with the control motions from their game consoles.

Now that the costs of sensors has dropped to the single digit range, MEMS sensors are moving into other areas like sports and fitness. Most of the sensor-enabled equipment is in the more extreme sports like skiing, snowboarding, and surfing. Health and fitness systems are focusing on the more elite athletes, who can benefit the most from the data.

The gaming industry is the biggest driver for the advanced motion sensor industry and dominate the apps for mobile devices. The combo sensors: gyro-accel-compass make the games possible on the smaller platforms and are driving revenues. In '11, apps sold over €2B with another billion for games. In '15, this is projected to be €5B for all apps and almost as much for the games. Game income is for both the game and for the in-game purchases.

Augmented reality is possible with the motion sensors and a camera. Functions include 3-D tagging for social networks, range finders, and local information on landmarks. At the same time, the motion sensors can make the cameras in phones and DSLRs better, by enabling optical image stabilization. This capability is especially relevant in any imager with over 8 megapixels resolution.

Indoor navigation has the potential to grow by an order of magnitude. Motion sensors can complement the radio location technologies of WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Accelerometers can provide distance measurements, gyroscopes offer dead reckoning, compasses indicate heading, and pressure sensors can give floor-level accuracy.

New apps will combine the gyroscope data and other functions and will allow the mobile user to have sensor-based Internet. The gyro data are accessible through Safari JavaScript. The developer base can now consider other ways to combine the Web with sensors.

Beyond motion sensors is context awareness. Sensor fusion will integrate all the sensors in a handset—microphone, GPS, camera, as well as agenda and social network status. The smart phone will become your personal assistant and even consider your state of mind and temperament through skin conductivity and heart rate information that the various sensors can acquire.

The biggest challenge is to power the sensors and process the resulting data. Researchers are looking into a number of architectures for the always on sensor arrays. One issue is to determine if it is better to have a dedicated sensor processor, or to move the intelligence to the sensor. The jury is still out.

As the devices get smarter, the control is likely to move to gestures rather than to touch. The addition of IR sensors and emitters, or 3-D camera configurations will enable touchless controls. The technologies are already available, but not in volume use yet. Other interfaces might include "blow" sensors that measure humidity and temperature to control various functions.

Environmental and biological sensors are in the demonstration phase, with alcohol and acetone analysis in early stages. Weather sensors: pressure, humidity, temperature, UV, etc. have been around for a while, but not integrated into a single package. The world of sensors is still in the high growth stages, and will continue increasing with new categories of sensors and the corresponding apps.