Small devices with huge impact

How does your tablet know that you are tilting it to take a turn in your racing game? How does your smartphone know which option you have selected when you tap it? How does a pacemaker vary the heartbeat in relation to the activity of the body? The answer: MEMS or MicroElectroMechanical Systems.

They are microscale devices, measuring between 1 micrometre to 1 millimetre, having both electrical and mechanical components. They may consist of a microprocessor, analog to digital converters and signal amplifiers along with mechanical components that interact with the outside world such as microsensors used for measuring acceleration, rotation, sound, impact, vibration and so on.

Well before the technology to make miniaturised machines became a reality, the potential was highlighted by Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 lecture ‘There’s plenty of room at the bottom’. However, MEMS became practical only when the microscale structures could be fabricated using modified semiconductor device fabrication technologies.

Inertial MEMS sensors are MEMS devices that make the examples quoted above possible. They convert a physical phenomenon, such as acceleration, vibration, rotation, tilt or shock, into a measurable electrical signal. The most typical inertial MEMS sensors are the accelerometer, which measures acceleration or translational motion, and the gyroscope, which senses rotation. MEMS technology has reduced size and cost of these sensors dramatically compared to conventional mechanical accelerometers or gyroscopes. This led to MEMS being used in applications that were not possible earlier. For example, the early 1990s saw Analog Device pioneering inertial MEMS being used in automotive airbags.

Capturing clear and crisp images, especially without a tripod, is a challenge even for professional photographers. When a photographer’s hands are not steady, the camera lens rotates resulting in a blurry image, especially at slow shutter speeds and in low light conditions. A two axis gyroscope is used to measure the movement of the camera, and a microcontroller directs that signal to small linear motors that move the image sensor, compensating for the camera motion. Light strikes the pixels of the image sensor as though the camera was not shaking,

Gaming:-

Motion is already a “must have” function in game consoles, as demonstrated in the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 controllers, and in cellphones where motion processing is used for display orientation, gaming and user interface functionality. Accelerometers and gyroscopes are used in a complementary fashion to identify different types of motion — gravity, linear motion and rotational motion and capture the type of movement, such as striking a tennis ball when playing a virtual tennis game on your gaming console.

Navigation:-

The dependence on GPS-based navigation systems is increasing by the day. GPS devices provide latitude, longitude and some may calculate altitude information, which can be used in navigation. But GPS data may not be continuously available due to possibility of signal blockage and other factors. In the event of GPS signal dropout, MEMS sensors (accelerometer and yaw rate gyroscope) act as a ‘flywheel’ to maintain vehicle orientation and help ensure accurate vehicle positioning. Similarly, in urban combat situations, positioning of each soldier may not be possible with GPS alone. MEMS sensors are used to detect and pinpoint accurate information of soldier position based on a GPS reference.

Modern automobiles have several sensors. However, the two most important applications are airbags and Electronic Stability Control (ESC). High-g accelerometers are installed to detect the collision and actuate an airbag.

While for ESC, a gyroscope compares the driver’s intended direction, which is determined from steering wheel position and if there is any difference between intended and actual direction, and ESC system will apply braking to a wheel and bring the car back in the control of the driver.

Surgical assistance:-

Inertial motion sensors enable a new portable surgical navigation system that guides femoral alignment during knee surgery. This system allows an orthopaedic surgeon to quickly determine the centre of rotation of the patient’s femur and calculate the precise angles to cut the bone in knee replacement surgery, providing alignment precision comparable to the more expensive camera-based navigation systems.

Similarly, the inertial sensors can be used further to optimise battery operation in pacemakers, real-time motion capture, for anti-theft alarms in cars, fall-detection or impact detection for athletes, gesture detection and so on.

Power of invisible technology

Apple’s remarkable advancements in design and multi-touch capacitive technology (which is why the touch seems “just right”) have resulted in the iPad becoming the golden standard.

It is said that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. The past one year has showed us that the tablet market is no less forgiving, with the bodies of HP, Motorola and RIM having washed up on shore.

Pricing-premium strategies and market vagaries aside, the question of why the ‘tablet market’ is really the ‘iPad market’ offers an interesting perspective on the underlying technology dynamics that are at play.

The issue with Android-based tablets, which so far have had the best shot at the throne, is that to the average user, they don’t seem as “nice as the iPad”. Apple’s remarkable advancements in design and multi-touch capacitive technology (which is why the touch seems “just right”) have resulted in the iPad becoming the golden standard. Thus the maxim — it is not the iPad versus the other tablets; it’s the iPad versus tablets.

The secret of the iPad’s spell-binding success lies in the field of invisible technology, an area which designers and businessmen have exploited to get past the simple fact that innovation in technology is fast outstripping consumer comprehension. The goal of invisible technology is very similar to that of the doorknob phenomena. Everybody uses a doorknob at least once a day, but the only time you realize you are using one, is when it stops working.

A common complaint of Microsoft’s Windows operating system is that it constantly demands attention, with numerous tiny features screaming out — distracting the user from the task at hand. Contrast this to Apple’s OS X or iOS and the fundamental differences in design philosophy becomes apparent.

In the tech-world, while good tools are unobtrusive, great tools are invisible. That humans interact with tools at nearly every moment of their lives, would be stating the obvious. Mature areas of technology, however, have become so optimized that users no longer think about their individual interactions with them. Heat generation, for, instance has been around for so long that one doesn’t have to stop to think about one’s stoves’ user interface. Cars are similarly invisible, at least in the basic no-frills model.

The original iPad was not a trailblazer in its openness, features, or its screaming capabilities. Indeed, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and newer contenders such as the Google Nexus 7 are far better in these categories. When media commentators and analysts exclaim that Apple’s products “just work”, what they really mean is that the products have become nearly invisible.

The academic-turned-designer Don Norman once spoke about how, at one time, people could actually buy a ‘kitchen motor’ that would attach to a number of useful devices such as mixers and blenders. When motor technology advanced, however, motors disappeared – becoming just an implicit part of other devices that we consider for their primary function and not for the fact that they contain motors.

That desideratum — get the job done and then be unobtrusive is how the iPad wowed its target market. It is no surprise that Mr. Norman has been with Apple since the Macintosh was first developed.

However, the competition is learning quickly from the tablet graveyard with Google, Microsoft and Samsung determined to catch-up to the invisible standard, while playing to their own strengths.

Google in specific is not likely to forget the spectacular failure of Motorola’s Xoom, which when initially launched to counter the original iPad, came with a steep learning curve. It consequently fell flat at retail.

True to their words, however, the market looks ready to be shaken up with the arrivals of the Nexus 10 and Surface in the coming months. However, even as the ‘tablet revolution’ leaves the general consumer behind as more bells and whistles are constantly added, the move towards invisible technology will be a cornerstone in driving future products.