Motion Applications Report’s Curt Harler had a chance to speak with ABI Research’s Douglas McEuen about the role of accelerometers in mobile devices. Here’s the results of that conversation:

The single biggest problem facing almost any portable device – whether a laptop, a cell phone, or a GPS unit – is battery life.

Sticking a MEMS accelerometer into a phone, for example, has the potential to reduce battery usage.

“We’re going to see a lot of MEMS accelerometers in small, ultra-low power devices,” says ABI Research senior analyst Douglas McEuen.

There are at least two separate application areas where the cell phone can benefit: battery life and security.

In the first case, McEuen sees a motion sensor being placed into the phone. “It will make the phone smarter, put it in sleep mode quicker,” he says. A cell phone laid horizontally on its face, for example, would sense that it was not being used (one placed right-side up might be sitting there in speaker mode or be on hold). It would power-down right away. Or, the cell phone might sense that it was being held vertically near a person’s ear. At that point, there is no reason to maintain the backlighting of the phone’s screen. Move the phone down for redialing a number and the accelerometer would again sense the motion of the phone and re-illuminate the screen.

The security application would be a simple matter of the phone sensing when it was moved or placed into a phone-call attitude for the first time in a while. The accelerometer would immediately activate a security feature which would then prompt the user to enter a short security code. No code, no call.

In addition, there are other possibilities. The phone could lock out the ability to see phone numbers until a valid code is entered. Or, it could even call the police and notify them that it had been stolen.

McEuen was noodling with developers at ADI and figures the trade-off from putting the extra weight and power consumption of the accelerometer into a handset would quickly pay back in terms of power savings.

ADVERTISING SMARTS

As more retail merchants get Wi-Fi enabled, the potential for advertising to cell phone users increases. A user, walking past a coffee shop, might be pinged with a coupon offer for a free scone with a latte.

However, the user driving by would not be pinged – the accelerometer would be able to determine speed and, working on the premise that someone flying by a mall would not want to be buzzed by a dozen merchants in 30 seconds, would cancel the receiver. That would save the owner a lot of hassle…but still let the store communicate with possible customers strolling by.

Another area where McEuen sees potential is for extending the life of laptop computers. Even if you have the hands of an NFL wide receiver, the odds are good you’ve dropped your laptop at some time or other.

An accelerometer in the laptop can measure the freefall of the computer and immediately park the hard-drive disk.