editor's blog
Subscribe Now

Sensors for the 1%

A frequent topic at events like the Interactive Technology Summit (ITS) is the increasing presence of sensors in phones and other gadgets. But it’s reasonable to ask how many of those sensors will be needed by the majority of people. It’s kind of an 80/20 thing, and the obvious follow-on question is, what to do about the 80% of sensors that 80% of the people don’t need?

One company presenting at the ITS was Variable; they introduced their Node+ sensor platform, which implicitly contains one answer to this partitioning question. They see phones as taking on the following sensors:

  • Accelerometer
  • Gyroscope
  • Magnetometer
  • Ambient Light
  • Proximity
  • Fingerprint
  • Microphone
  • Camera
  • Humidity
  • Barometer
  • GPS

And, far from being an 80/20 thing, they see these as satisfying 99% of phone users. But there are still “professionals” that will need sensors beyond these, many being very specialized. Rather than burdening the entire phone with them, they would be external, leveraging the phone as a platform for apps that communicate with the external sensors. They listed the following as opportunities for such sensors (with my parenthetical comments):

  • Vibration (phones might theoretically be able to do this, but the sensor ranges and quality may not be sufficient)
  • Motion tracking (actually, this is already being done in phones, to some degree…)
  • Temperature (although there’s probably a good chance many could use this…)
  • Force
  • Color
  • Gases
  • Radiation
  • Medical
  • Noise
  • Air flow
  • Distance

They’ve done yet another partition by separating out what they call the platform from the sensors themselves. The sensor contains the transducer and analog front-end (AFE). The cleaned-up analog signals are delivered to the platform, which, in conjunction with the phone (attached via BlueTooth) handles analog-to-digital conversion, local processing via firmware on a microcontroller, and an application layer (and possible connection to the cloud). The platform (below), a small cylinder, can accommodate two sensors – one at each end.

(I was hoping to include pictures, but I received no response to my request for permission to use their images.)

The sensors themselves are sold separately (with the exception of a 9-axis motion sensor within the platform). Currently-available modules include (shown in order below), a “luma” module for lighting a scene (seems more of an accessory than a sensor), a remote “therma” thermometer, a weather/environment “clima” sensor, a color-matching “chroma” sensor, and an “oxa” gas detector capable of sensing CO, NO, NO2, Cl2, SO2, and H2S.

Of course, this kind of partitioning may involve more than a technical breakdown of the 99/1 rule. Other critical factors would likely include simple business model considerations (higher revenue by selling attachments) and control: they don’t control what goes into the phone. If phone makers decide that there is value to some of these (like, for instance, the weather sensor) for the 99%, and if they think they can differentiate their phones with them, then a separate module will look less attractive.

So this partitioning is likely to shift with the vagaries of the market.

You can find more at Variable’s website.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Jun 16, 2025
I recently ran across a very interesting website boasting 500+ reviews of books pertaining to time travel...

Libby's Lab

Libby's Lab - Scopes out Littelfuse C&K Aerospace AeroSplice Connectors

Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Littelfuse

Join Libby and Demo in this episode of “Libby’s Lab” as they explore the Littelfuse C&K Aerospace Aerosplice Connectors, available at Mouser.com! These connectors are ideal for high-reliability easy-to-use wire-to-wire connections in aerospace applications. Keep your circuits charged and your ideas sparking!

Click here for more information

featured paper

Shift Left with Calibre Pattern Matching: Trust in design practices but verify early and frequently

Sponsored by Siemens Digital Industries Software

As integrated circuit (IC) designs become increasingly complex, early-stage verification is crucial to ensure productivity and quality in design processes. The "shift left" verification approach, enabled by Siemens’ Calibre nmPlatform, helps IC design teams to identify and resolve critical issues much earlier in the design cycle.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

ADI Pressure Sensing Solutions Enable the Future of Industrial Intelligent Edge
The intelligent edge enables greater autonomy, sustainability, connectivity, and security for a variety of electronic designs today. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Maurizio Gavardoni from Analog Devices explore how the intelligent edge is driving a transformation in industrial automation, the role that pressure sensing solutions play in IIoT designs and how Analog Devices is reshaping pressure sensor manufacturing with single flow calibration.
Aug 2, 2024
60,271 views