Sensitive sensors track the world in real time

Sensitive sensors track the world in real time

You may have never given two thoughts to the sensors that come on you smartphone. They don't mind. They're still there anyway, computing data on your phone's movement and speed, rotation, and lighting conditions.

These under-appreciated components -- the gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, and so forth -- are starting to get more friends in the neighborhood. Samsung, for instance, slipped pressure, temperature, and humidity sniffers into the Galaxy S4.

They may not be the sexiest feature in your phone, but in the future, sensors like accelerometers will be able to collect and report much more detailed information.

Imagine an air quality sensor on a smartphone suggests David Harris, social change agent atInstitute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif. Much like the Waze app crowdsources city maps and traffic conditions, sensors like the one Harris proposes could collect incredibly useful data about air quality around the world. That, in turn, could be used to monitor global climate change, or perhaps pollutants or allergens, through a network of smartphones.

Down the street at Ideo, Dave Blakely, the senior director of technology strategy, agrees. "The desire for the quantification of environmental factors is a big one," he said.

In addition to air quality, temperature and speed of movement are also biggies. Blakely also sees a future where electrical and health sensors built into the smartphone can track your pulse, or even double as an EKG, turning the everyday smartphone into a medical device.

'Appcessories'

An extension of the smartphone as medical device is what Ideo's Blakely terms "appcessories," a set of highly specialized peripheral software that fulfills very targeted needs, stuff that most people wouldn't want their everyday phone.

Let's say you've downloaded an art app that maps out a paint-by-numbers schematic of your favorite Picasso. Now let's say you've bought an after-market appcessory, a tiny pico projector with an NFC chip installed that, when you slip it onto the phone, beams out the image onto your surface so that you can get to work on your painting, or vegetable garden planting, or DIY home project.