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Sept. 17, 2004 – Smart homes, those high-tech houses where the lights, sprinkler systems, appliances and heating and cooling systems all communicate through Web-based wireless networks, still appear to be only for the very wealthy. Think Bill Gates.
Then think again. Thanks to MEMS, the basic building blocks actually are there for bringing intelligence into housing for the masses. All that remains is the network connection. Because MEMS may make the smart home concept a reality, there are some great opportunities for those pursuing this market.
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A tour of a middle-class home proves this point. Take the living room, family room, great room, or where ever everyone gathers around the TV. Texas Instruments’ Digital Light Processor has made great strides here, both in terms of home theater projectors as well as digital TVs. But how about the stereo that completes the home theater setup?
Interestingly, the use of accelerometers in active subwoofers, a key part of any surround-sound system, started out as a niche within the high-end audio market. But Home Theater in a Box (a basic surround sound system that’s all put together and just needs to be connected to a TV) has seen tremendous growth in the past several years, to the point where this niche is now accounting for millions of units.
Certainly no family room (at least in the U.S.) would be complete without an Xbox or other gaming system. Here, MEMS accelerometers, pressure sensors, strain gauges, thermopiles, and even gyroscopes are all playing a role in various forms, primarily via peripherals.
These peripherals tend to come and go, depending on market acceptance, but range from simple products such as a joystick, to Powergrid Fitness’ kiloWatt controller, which was designed to provide a bona fide workout while you play video games. For real. It appears that the days of being a couch potato and sitting numbly in front of the Playstation may be numbered.
Moving to the bathroom, MEMS can be found in bathroom scales, ear thermometers, hair dryers, and more recently, portable blood pressure monitors. Going a step further, Steag microParts is developing a virtually propellant-free aerosol system called TRUSPRAY, which is based on the same pump and nozzle system it successfully developed for use in soft mist inhalers available from Boehringer Ingelheim.
This could feasibly revolutionize the beauty product industry, but we’ll have to wait until late 2004 when it is scheduled to launch to see what the real impact is.
The laundry room offers some of the most mature applications of MEMS in the home. Washing machines have been integrating pressure sensors for water level monitoring and accelerometers for load imbalance over the past several years.
But it is the kitchen where the real action is taking place. From cook tops and dishwashers to microwaves and refrigerators, all sorts of MEMS sensors are making these appliances smarter by increasing their efficiency. And that’s just the white goods category (which typically encompasses the larger, more expensive appliances in the home).
Small electrics such as kitchen scales, toasters, space heaters, and vacuum cleaners are now using MEMS pressure sensors, strain gauges, thermopiles, and accelerometers. In fact, gyros (among a number of other MEMS sensors) are now purported to be in some of the robotic vacuums that are making a splash in the market. You’d have to buy one of the higher end models, such as Hanool Robotics’ OTTORO, which contains 30 sensors, and sells for $3,000.
For those of you with wall-to-wall carpet, Infineon Technologies is hoping to take smart homes to the next level by developing Smart Carpet. The project is still in the concept stage, but Infineon is working with carpet manufacturer Vorwerk to weave “intelligence” into carpeting. Accelerometers and pressure sensors (among other sensing functions) could provide feedback to security systems, or even help to control home heating and cooling.
Simply connect your carpet and the appliances discussed above to a home computer and wireless LAN, and voila — the smart home comes to life. Of course, it’s not quite that easy, and I still don’t understand why my vacuum cleaner would need to interact with my refrigerator. But it does serve to point out that the basic concept of the smart home (which will need to rely on sensors to make it so) does indeed already exist.
Clearly, MEMS are growing up fast when it comes to their integration into consumer electronics and helping to make smart homes a reality. While most applications, at this point, remain fairly niche, all signs point to more MEMS devices moving into an increasing number of product families, and thus, moving toward higher volumes.
What’s been key to this market movement have been the continued reductions in price (at lower minimum quantities) and smaller package designs. And we’ve only just begun. As a result, revenues for MEMS in consumer electronics products as a whole are forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.2 percent, from $292.7 million in 2003, to $543.3 million in 2008, with unit shipments increasing at a CAGR of 14.2 percent.