Sensor-packed smartphones becoming ‘Star Trek’ tricorders
Smartphones are getting so jam-packed with sensors that they’re going to start resembling “Star Trek” tricorders. A report Thursday fromIHS Technology (IHS) predicts that the market for sensors in smartphones and tablets will nearly triple from 2012 through 2018. It forecasts sensor sales rising to $6.5 billion in 2018 from $2.3 billion in 2012. Last year, sensor sales totaled nearly $3.5 billion, up 49% from 2012. Competition between smartphone giants Apple (AAPL) and Samsung is fueling the proliferation of sensors, IHS says. Apple’s iPhone 6 has 10 sensors: three microphones, a six-axis combo motion sensor that incorporates two sensors (an accelerometer and gyroscope), a discrete accelerometer, a pressure sensor, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor and a fingerprint sensor. Samsung’s Galaxy S5 has 11 sensors, including an optical pulse sensor. Most of the sensors are well established and have to do with sound sensing, motion…