The first time I heard of the word MEMS, I didn't know what it meant. I searched on the web and found that it stands for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. Didn't really make things any clearer. I thought I would never really care about it anyway. I was wrong.Sarah has been asking our parents for a console Wii so we can play family games together. The Wii remote detects motions and accelerations. This makes for very natural game play - golf, tennis, etc.
Our car is equipped with air bags. Last winter Dad drove over a frozen bridge covered with black ice and hit a tree. He was safe, thanks to the air bags that instantaneously protected him.
My digital camera correctly orients pictures horizontally or vertically because it knew how I hold it when I took the shot. You've probably seen the demos for the iPhone, the screen automatically rotates when the user holds the device horizontally or vertically.
MEMS are everywhere. These tiny components are hiding in each of the machines discussed above and are no thicker than a piece of hair. They are called electro-mechanical because they contain small mobile parts causing or responding to electrical signals. There are thousands of different kinds - motion sensors, tiny motors to mix fluids, arrays with hundreds of minuscule mirrors to switch Internet signals from one fiber optic to a different one... Even our washing machine uses MEMS to detect rotation imbalance. Humans also carry natural mems. The inner part of our ears contains tiny stones that touch sensitive cells informing our brain about the position of the head and body vibrations - so we retain very good and stable vision even when we move a lot. Sometimes the minuscule stones, called otholiths, get blocked. A person gets nausea and suffers from a helpless feeling of falling down.
To go further
Sarah is too busy with the latest Harry Potter book and she entirely forgot about the Wii.
1 comment:
Well written article.
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