6 - Applications

A modern smartphone uses accelerometers and inertial sensors for using motion detection. An iPhone 6 uses a sensor cluster/fusion of a Bosch BMA280 (figure left) and an InvenSense MPU-6500 (figure right). The two component complement each other, from the aspect of precision and current (power) requirements. Source: Chipworks

Nintendo was a pioneer of motion sensing in cheap consumer electronics. Nitendo Wii controller used an accelerometer (ADXL330) and an extension of a gyroscope (IDG-600) and a yaw-rate sensor (X3500W) included in Motion+ device. Source: Sparkfun, Source: Osculator.

The controller also houses a PixArt IR sensor which serves as a camera. The sensor bar sits underneath the television, housing an IR led bar. The camera in the controller checks on the IR led bar, and calculates the controller position in space according to triangulation calculations. Source: Nikkei.

Microsoft also presented an innovation with a PrimeSense patent (US 2008/0106746). The Kinect (and its predecessor) was able to perform image processing with a 2D scene projection, and a 3D Infra light mapping/light coding technique. An IR light dot matrix is projected on the scene (e.g. a room), then a CMOS sensor maps the scene according to the distance and the shape of the light dots. An SoC handles the obtained information, which requires huge processing capability. Among other refinements, Kinect 2 improved upon the resolution of the depth sensing technology.

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are utilizing many sensors in order to place the user in a virtual space. For the real space in HTC technology, the room has to be set up with IR cameras. The headset itself contains gyroscopes, accelerometers, laser based position sensors, and a camera for mixed-reality applications. The whole setup contains more than 70 sensors.

An interesting example: the electronic fountain pen never dries out and clog, when not used during a long time. The system includes an ink sensor to measure the amount of ink under the nib. A valve, whic also could be operated as a pump, is used to bring the ink to the nib, when required. The valve is closed when the pen is not in use, guaranteeing leakage-free storage. Source: http://www.hsg-imit.de/