MEMS & Sensors: Personalizing Consumer Technology, a CES 2017 conference track presented by the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, featured leading MEMS manufacturers who discussed the latest developments in the industry. Similar to how the media and entertainment industry now leverages data to personalize the entertainment experience, so MEMS and sensors are helping the wearables industry create more personalized devices. That puts pressures on MEMS and sensor manufacturers to innovate. Continue reading MEMS & Sensors: Still Evolving Capabilities, Not Commodities

Eighty-four million wearables were sold in 2015, and experts are predicting the market will grow to 245 million by 2019. That means that, once again, CES 2017 will be the venue to check out the latest commercially available products and the newest technologies that will power wearables of the future. MEMS and sensors are key to wearables’ capabilities and, Karen Lightman, executive director of the MEMS Industry Group, says CES 2017 will showcase some “exciting” new wearables features. Continue reading CES: Wearables Sporting New Capabilities in Maturing Market

At CES 2016, the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group held its fifth conference to focus on the technologies that quite literally enable the Internet of Things. The group’s executive director Karen Lightman notes that MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) are both sensors and actuators, the latter being the key differentiating factor. “Not all MEMS are sensors and not all sensors are MEMS,” she said. “What’s exciting is that MEMS and sensors still offer new science and new ways of addressing challenging issues.” Continue reading Sensors Industry Group Sets the Bar, Sees the Future for IoT

Audio is finally getting attention as an important component of wearables. Microphone companies are integrating MEMS and sensors to create a new category of “earables.” “Fitness bands and smartwatches have dominated thus far, as a source for sensor data,” says TechKnowledge Strategies principal analyst Mike Feibus, who moderated a panel on the topic at the MEMS and Sensors conference at CES. He identified the user interface — in this case, voice — as having the effectiveness to make earables marketable and profitable. Continue reading Mics, Sensors, Natural Language Combine for New ‘Earables’

Put on a headset and enter a virtual world for a first person shooter game. Now connect yourself to an omni-directional treadmill and make that VR game fully physical, as you walk forward, backward, crouch and shoot in every direction. That’s what Virtuix president David Allan showed at the MEMS & Sensors conference during CES, detailing how he created a system that allows a user to jump, strafe and generally have fun… without falling over. “The system needs to hold you in place and understand your movements and gestures,” he said. Continue reading How Virtuix Used MEMS and Sensors for Omni-Directional VR

If MC10 has its way, your next wearable device will be a sticky bandage or temporary tattoo that adheres to your skin and stretches with your every movement. If you’re wearing several on different parts of your body, they’ll synchronize their data. “You achieve stretchability and bendability, which is important when you consider the human body,” said MC10 co-founder/technology vice president Roozbeh Ghaffari. “This allows you to wear systems on your body with minimal discomfort.” Continue reading Wearable Form Factors Get Stretchable, Bendable, Lightweight

In China, parents strap “children’s watches” on their offspring to track their movements and sound the alarm if the child leaves the schoolyard. Sensors will soon be able to tell if grandma has fallen down in the living room, and smart fabrics, with embedded sensors, will soon be assisting patients, soldiers and first responders. Just a couple of years ago, wearables were just fitness trackers and smartwatches. At CES 2016, we’ll see the sensors that power wearables expand as engines to the Internet of Things. Continue reading CES 2016: Sensors Connect Wearables, the Internet of Things

Wearables are powered by MEMS (Microelectrical Mechanical Systems) and sensors, and the MEMS Industry Group (MIG) is focused on addressing the issues that will help catapult wearables and the Internet of Things to become more powerful market segments. The wearable sensor market is expected to expand seven-fold in five years, to be valued at more than $450M in 2018. At CES, MIG Executive Director Karen Lightman introduced a day-long conference devoted to MEMS and sensors. Continue reading MEMS and Sensors Power Wearables, the Internet of Things