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.

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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.

Called ShutUp, the app uses the N95’s native accelerometer to disconnect incoming cell phone calls when users flip their phones over. Simply reach into your pocket, turn the device over and continue your conversation without interruption.

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on Youtube.com showcasing an interesting accelerometer application they’ve designed for use with the iPhone.

As the video demonstrates, Shoogle has the potential to be both hands- and eyes-free.

In lowland Scotland, the verb ‘shoogle’ means to rock back and forth with small rapid movements. In this reference, Shoogle refers to an auditory and tactile iPhone application designed for low-end tasks such as indicating the presence of text messages and battery levels, to name a few.

Users will shake their iPhones to determine if they have messages or what their battery level is, then hear sounds or feel either force or tactile feedback in response. Shoogle has been mounted in both a PDA and a mobile phone and uses a wireless sensor pack.

Research Assistant John Williams, along with Murray-Smith and Stephen Hughes, co-authored the paper describing the project. They presented it at the Association of Computing Machines Special Interest Group – Computer Human Interaction Conference in April-May 2007 in San Jose, Calif.

The research group, led by Roderick Murray Smith, a professor in Glasgow’s department of computing sciences, focuses it efforts on interaction between humans and between humans and computers. These folks find the interaction of a mouse with a computer to be a clumsy artifice, soon to obsolesced by more interactive and less involving input/output processes.

To paraphrase the old Chinese saying, “Show a man a fish and he is satisfied for a day, teach a man to fish and he’s hooked for life.” Nintendo is integrating the same philosophy into its Wii marketing – with a twist. Their motto might be “Show a man a Wii and he will nod his head. Teach a man to use the Wii and you’ve got a customer for life.”

Nintendo has hired US Concepts (www.usconcepts.com), a marketing corporation, to show off its Wii in shopping malls and similar venues across the country. They call the overall program Nintendo Street Team. And, as part of the effort to teach people to game, the goal is to have 40 million “impressions” as part of the effort.

Attractive kiosks are set up in a mall and shoppers are invited, at no charge, to play with the Wii game. Such a system was installed at the Southpark Mall in upscale, suburban Cleveland, Ohio. This is one of 25 markets where the concept will be promoted. Even in the off-times, the Wii booth was seldom without a few people experimenting with the motion-enabled gaming system. More typically, there would be a line of people waiting to play the games and several kibitzers offering advice or adding levity to the situation. In all, it makes for a good, informal way to bring motion-enabled gaming to a broader public.

“We are here to show people that these games are not just for kids,” a demonstrator says, as she gives a 40-ish aged man advice on backing off his swing to avoid four-putting a hole in the golf game. His wife loudly adds every stroke he takes, even though the system tallies his score for him.

The demonstrators are well-trained. “This is perfect for Ohio in the winter,” she notes in a soft-sell approach. “It’s also good for shut-ins and people who can not get out as readily as they might otherwise.”

While the promotional material definitely talks about Nintendo and retail partners like GameStop, the entire sales pitch is more geared at getting middle-aged, affluent people interested in motion-enabled gaming. While the demonstrators will talk about price (the full system — as demonstrated with one Wii remote, one nunchuk and the five Wii Sports games loaded — runs $249), there is absolutely no hard sales pitch. In fact, an observer gets the idea that the program is aimed at having the participants feel like they had fun.

Single sheets of paper marked “My Wii Wish List” are available and can be used to check off the components or games that the customer might like. Since there is no point-of-sale, there is no pressure.

The workers appear to like their jobs, important in any selling situation. “Where else do you get trained to play games and then get to play those games all day?” one demonstrator asked.

The Wii locations are temporary. After two months, the Cleveland-area location will move to Akron and beyond.

     Based in Norwood, Mass., Analog Devices Inc. has 8,500 employees and earns $2.6 billion annually. It MEMS accelerometers represent about 5 percent of total sales.

     The company has three main factories, one each located in Wilmington, Mass., Cambridge, Mass., and Limerick, Ireland. “We also have some backend operations in the Philippines,” says Howard Wisniowski, product marketing manager for iMEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes.

     ADI created the iMEMS line in 1989, which went into production in 1992.  Its first product was the ADXL50, a high-g accelerometer Saab used in its airbag deployment system.

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These days, most iMEMS accelerometers sell to Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive system suppliers. “Our next biggest market is consumer goods—digital cameras, TV, gaming and portable gaming, medical, navigational and media devices,” says Wisniowski.

     Both the consumer products and automotive markets are “growing healthily” in ADI’s forecasts.

     He described the consumer products market as “exploding.” Some of the factors driving this sector are that digital TVs will be gone by 2009, flat panels are replacing CRTs and the console/computer gaming business is booming.

     “It’s growing above 10 percent annually,” he says.

     ADI’s automotive business is growing 10 percent per year. “By 2011, from 20 to 22 percent of the components of all automobiles will be electronic. 

Crossbow Technology makes products that do just that. The company designs and manufactures products using a wide range of solid-state sensors including accelerometers, angular-rate sensors (gyros), magnetometers, GPS and air-data sensors. One area of specialty is avionics systems.

“We were the first MEMS-based gyro available for purchase on the open market,” says Bill Butler, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for the company’s inertial products. Other companies, like Honeywell, had developed their own for use with their systems.

One of Crossbow’s major clients is Eclipse Aviation (www.eclipseaviation.com), which produced the first certified VLJ. Eclipse’s goal is to design, certify and produce modern, affordable jet aircraft to revolutionize the transportation market. The company is applying advanced electronics systems, manufacturing and business practices to produce aircraft that cost less than a third of today’s small jet aircraft, will be significantly safer. Part of that package is the Crossbow technology.

Crossbow is providing the AHRS510GA Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) for Eclipse. The MEMS-based AHRS510GA is the first OEM product of its kind certified as a primary instrument in a VLJ, according to Dean Johnson vice president and general manager of Crossbow’s Inertial Products Division. “The AHRS510 introduces ARINC429 compatibility and builds upon our extensive investment in MEMS technology, supporting Crossbow’s position as the price-performance leader in the market”, he adds.

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The device provides pitch attitude, yaw attitude and magnetic heading to very high accuracy over a very wide range of temperatures, aircraft vibration characteristics and electronic noise.

What makes the device special is it is a true stand-alone, independent device. It was the first such unit to get FAA approval when it hit the market a couple of years ago. Since then, Butler says, they have continued to upgrade and improve the product.

For one thing, they have boosted the FAA certification from Level C to Level B.

Butler credits the improvement in the product both to changes in the hardware sensors and in the software used. “Both keep getting better and we add more rigor to the software,” he notes. The company has both one-axis and three-axis accelerometers.

Crossbow is a privately held with major investors Cisco Systems, Intel, Morgenthaler Ventures, Paladin Capital Group and The Cambria Group. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Crossbow has representation in 24 countries world wide through direct offices and distributors.

Unless someone is purchasing a unit directly from Crossbow, it is unlikely they would see the firm’s name. The company does the vast bulk of its sales as an OEM provider and does not lose anything by not having its name in lights. “Most of the companies in the field use our product,” Butler says. “For us, it’s the right model.”

They currently are working with Honeywell to develop a primary flight display for the retrofit market.

Business is good. “We’re growing like crazy,” Butler says. The company also has a wireless division. But the inertial system group’s revenues alone have doubled on an annual basis.

PHOTO: This is the MEMS-based Gyro from Crossbow that Eclipse Aviation uses.

Fentem related on his corporate Web site the “primary aim of [his] research work has been the creation of intellectual property relating to the design of electronic entertainment devices.” This research has yielded some “innovative machine art.”

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Like its progenitor, the Fentix Cube features a six-sided, multi-touch, touch-screen that can be used to create patterns, play games, or simply spun to reconstitute solid colors on the sidewalls. Not surprisingly, the gadget packs a 3D sensor array of accelerometers in its guts.

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Folks who are thinking stocking stuffer on this will have to bop over to the web site of the Kinetica Museum in London, England, the device’s sole marketer. There might be a bit of a wait, however. As of the end of November, there is a notice the cube is “coming soon.”

The first is called the Ham Bone. It uses two piezoelectric microphones which are pressed to the bases of the user’s wrist. They “listen” to the creaks and rubbing noises of the wrist as it turns. In addition it can identify gestures as the user rubs a finger around near the device.

The second uses a set of proximity sensors in a diamond pattern. The sensors follow motions made by the other hand – and that is an important concept.

“We are tying to figure how to make interfaces with items that are too small to use with touch buttons,” explains Thad Starner. He is founder and director of the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing and School of Interactive Computing.

Georgia Tech has a long history of research into gesture-based devices. The gestures made can be sent via Bluetooth to a device which the user is controlling.

According to Starner, the devices are just the latest iteration of research from the school’s research efforts. They are based on standard MEMS from Analog Devices.

Before joining the Georgia Tech faculty in 1999, Starner gained international recognition at the MIT Media Laboratory as one of the world’s leading experts on wearable computers during his doctoral work “Wearable Computing and Contextual Awareness.”

Much of what Starner does is in the area of pure research, as opposed to practical or commercially-driven work. “My research is five to 10 years out (from the market),” he says. His goal is to create demonstrations today that will morph into products in the years to come.

“I get to live in the future, quite literally,” he says. In fact, he has been using early versions of devices like those that will be displayed and demonstrated at the Wearables Conference since 1993.

Cellular phone users in the United States and Japan now can have motion applications capability, thanks to GestureTek Mobile and its EyeMobile Engine.

Ed Fowler, director of business development at GestureTek (www.gesturetekmobile.com), says the technology has been picked up in the United States by Alltel, Cellular South and Verizon. In the United States, the gesture-recognition software is available on devices operating on Microsoft’s Mobile 6 Platform. There are about 30 handsets that use the BREW platform (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) in North America. Symbian and Linux platforms also are supported, as well as Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and certain variants of Java, notably the one used by DoKoMo.

The technology has been available for the past six months in Japan with the FOMATM 904i series from DoCoMo. The Japanese are well ahead of the US market. Fowler says the phones in Japan can handle a variety of games and such practical tools as the Tokyo subway map. A company called Genki came out with 35 applications the day DoKoMo launched the 904i. The 905 version is expected out any time with six handsets in the lineup.

Fowler says there are six new handset manufacturers who are testing right now. “We’ll be north of 100 applications,” he promises. For a look at some of the games check out these links:

http://www.gesturetekmobile.com/videos/gesturetekmobile.wmv

http://docomo2.jp/top.html#tsuchiya*bowling

http://www.genkimobile.jp/i_chokkan/index.html

The EyeMobile Engine is completely in software (using optical sensing from the phone’s camera), thus it requires no MEMS and no accelerometer, Fowler notes.

Domestically, GestureTek Mobile is talking to all of the usual suspects, including Sprint and AT&T. Many other cell phone companies – in countries ranging including Guam, Brazil, New Zealand, Korea, Italy and Bermuda are BREW participants, and thus potential users of the technology. BREW is a C and C++ based software platform. Qualcomm is the main driver in the cellular world of the BREW technology. There are over 60 gesture-controlled mobile games that users can download which are enabled by EyeMobile. Three motion trackers — dubbed shake, rock and roll – record motion input. Shake is used for shuffling MP-3 decks or rolling the dice in a game. It is a “force of motion” interface that comes to the fore whenever a frentic user-action is appropriate, company engineers say. Rock takes the standard up/down, left/right gestures and translates them into cursor movements. The unit can be flicked forward or to the side. It is the shake that would be used to answer a phone call. Roll is a joystick-type movement that lets users navigate web pages, GPS map pages, or across game screens. Turning the pages in the phone’s directory would be accomplished with roll.

By using the camera, the system achieves extremely high definition. “We’ve more precise than the Wii and, unlike the Wii that uses big motions, we require only small shakes,” Fowler says. However, it is flexible enough for some big-scale games. It has a Wii-like bowling game that correctly interprets the four-inch swings of a phone the way a Wii would interpret the four-foot arc of a rolled balling ball.

Fowler’s favorite game, however, is a boxing match. The flip phone is set on a table and the player stands about two meters away. The player’s image is picked up by the camera and projected onto the game screen as the boxing bout proceeds.

The company, with locations in Sunnyvale, CA and Toronto, Canada has an API kit for developers that allows EyeMobile-enabled applications for OTA and pre-embedded delivery to mobile devices. The API lets developers bring motion control to applications that can run the same way as traditional key-controlled interfaces navigate a screen.

“The API is easy,” Fowler says. It can be downloaded at the company’s web site. Simply by signing the usual disclaimers and use agreements, a developer can dig into the system and start to develop motion applications.

At the moment, the company is creating “a whole bunch” of motion sensing controllers for the PS2, says Harry Holmwood, In2Games director. “The first four of these will launch this November in the UK and in early 2008 in the United States.”

Holmwood’s dossier reads like a well-heeled traveler’s in the British console gaming industry. A computer science graduate of the University of Southampton, Holmwood joined Intelligent Games, a UK-based videogame developer that worked on a number of titles for various companies including Maxis, Electronic Arts, Westwood Studios and Mindscape.

In 1994, Sony enlisted him to help introduce the Playstation in Europe. Two years later, he founded his own software development firm, which listed Mattel, Sony and Eidos among its clients. Holmwood joined In2Games in 2002 as a non-executive director and has served as its commercial and marketing director since 2004.

In2Games’ PS2 controller tech is based on RF and accelerometers. The controllers—including proposed models for racing, pool, tennis, bowling and golf–will be packaged with a new suite of console titles to be marketed under In2Games’ RealPlay label.

The company’s mainstay product is a cross-platform, true 3D, motion sensing controller introduced late last year. Using three-axis accelerometers, the Freedom controller features a floor- or monitor-mounted base unit equipped with four ultrasonic receivers.

“Our hand controllers emit ultrasonic pulses and we measure the time of flight to each of the four receivers, to work out the 3D X, Y, Z position,” says Holmwood. “It sounds simple in theory, but making it work accurately—at very lost cost—has been extremely challenging.”

Initially based on “a generic hand unit,” he says they plan to create and market Freedom-based sports games accessories in the long term. “Our tennis demo allows you to add topspin, slice etc. But this only scratches the surface of what the Freedom system can do.”

Freedom combines true, absolute X, Y, Z position in 3D space with tilt/accelerometer data that provides the controller’s orientation and acceleration. “This allows us to create gaming experiences of real depth and subtlety, such as full control over a tennis, golf or baseball game.”

Also in the works? Though he declined to give details, Holmwood hinted at future “’spatial’ gaming experiences nobody has seen before.”