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MEMS Are Slowly Finding Their Way Into the Coolest Consumer Gadgets
Friday, January 11, 2002
By Jeff Karoub
Small Times Staff Writer

Once plugged into a Palm Pilot, the Motion Sense Corp. device at top allows a user to make the screen scroll or icons on it move by tilting, rotating or flipping the PDA – like "gaming without a joystick." Pictured above is a portable projector made possible by Texas Instruments' micromirror arrays.
Photo Credit: SmallTimes.com.

Overall, Bourne said, the show revealed that MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) has come a long way from the lab, but it will take a while before the small technology hits the big time. Still, that could happen as it finds more key applications in the consumer market.

More than 20 companies are showing off MEMS-enabled gadgets at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to one expert's estimate.

While that's still a small percentage of the 2,000 exhibitors amid 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, it's still a lot better than last year, when MEMS analyst Marlene Bourne counted only one: Texas Instruments.

"This show is interesting from a MEMS perspective," said
Bourne, an analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group. "It’s definitely making inroads into consumer electronics, and we’re just starting to see the beginnings of it."

Those beginnings include a host of home theater devices powered by micromirrors, a plug-in module that might make your Palm Pilot or mobile phone easier to use and a sensor-filled glove that could be handy for game playing or even flight simulation.
(More: SmallTimes.com News Source)
2002 © SmallTimes Media.

Give them a new toy, and the technology will soar,
Dan