Radiation detection has long been established in healthcare and medical fields, and has gained prominence in the past few years in military and domestic security areas. However, several well-known and newer industrial applications represent some of the best growth and revenue opportunities for radiation detection systems, to detect and monitor radiation levels both in the environment and in or near facilities, including personnel.

Several industrial processes already regularly utilize radiation detection equipment, from measuring production lines to constantly checking personnel radiation exposures, to identify defects through non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. These sectors include energy generation, radiopharmacy, resource exploration (oil/gas and mining), and automotive & aerospace.

Among the various markets for radiation detection equipment, by far the largest is medical and healthcare applications, accounting for two-thirds of this sector. On the one hand it's a relatively established end market with clearly addressable usage cases. On the other hand, growth rates aren't as high as in other sectors such as domestic security or certain industrial processes, which require (often specialized) environmental monitoring capabilities.

Nevertheless, we see the medical and healthcare sector remaining a primary revenue generator for suppliers of radiation detection technologies. The market for X-ray imaging systems continues to be very strong for detecting low to high-energy photons coming out of tissues or bones (biological samples), especially in developing nations where these tests are cost-effective, efficient and quick.

We envision growth mainly will be for X-ray and for neutron systems. Gamma ray imaging has long been used in medical applications — apart from nuclear imaging systems, no other modality including radiology can aid in identifying malignancy — but we see more broadly its use in radiography as diminishing.

The smart coatings industry is now facing some issues that seemed almost unfathomable up until recently. The sudden decline in oil prices has not only taken the steam out its energy efficiency story but threatens to curb the resurgent green tech sector where self-healing and self-cleaning coatings had viable applications. Throw in a slowing global economy and you get the sense that the industry needs to look at other growth options.  NanoMarkets believes that the emergent Internet-of-Things is an area that might drive demand for the types of smart and highly functional coatings that generate the high value product sales.

The “Industrial Internet” is a term originally coined by GE, but now widely used and embodies the concept of industrial environments that are automated using sensor networks and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. The Industrial Internet is also closely associated with concept of the Internet-of-Things (IoT). Indeed, the Industrial Internet could be thought of as the IoT restricted to industrial situations, acknowledging that these situations have special needs. Although there is no accepted applicability of “Industrial Internet,” NanoMarkets think it reasonable to assume that Industrial Internets will increasingly be found in factory automation, commercial building automation, the energy industry and public transport of various kinds.

These are different settings in many ways, but NanoMarkets believes that they are all increasingly share a need for rugged networks that connect up complex machines with the purpose of enhancing efficiency, profitability and safety. The hidden assumption behind Industrial Internet concept is that a common platform with similar sensor infrastructure could serve for these many different applications.

NanoMarkets sees smart clothing poised to emerge into the spotlight and becoming a significant revenue generator for various levels in the supply chain, from materials suppliers to retailers. The key lies in the progress of development and commercialization of new and improved fabrics and sensors that are the essential building blocks for the capabilities — and value — of various smart clothing products. Three main barriers historically have been, and continue to be, at the center of development for “smart clothing” to pave the way for mass adoption: improved connectivity between modules, improved washability of smart fabrics, and standardized protocols. Thus, here also lies the opportunity for both materials and sensor manufacturers to develop new and improved types of smart fabrics and sensors: from lighter, soft flexible sensors to functional fabrics, conductive polymers, and even fibertronics that can function without the need for sensors.

Within the emerging category of wearable computing, arguably the most characteristic product to emerge is “smart glasses” which mesh the communications capabilities of smartphones with additional visual and other sensual enhancements, including augmented reality. The primary selling feature of smart glasses is their ability to display video, navigation, messaging, augmented reality (AR) applications, and games on a large virtual screen, all completely hands-free. The current poster child for smart glasses is Google’s “Glass” product, but there are more than 20 firms offering smart glasses or planning to do so.

The hands-free nature of smart glasses opens up new possibilities for human-computer interfaces (HCI), drawing from smart phones as well as interfaces developed in other contexts (e.g. virtual reality). Early smart glasses models are leaning on mature and low-cost technologies with notable influence from smartphones; however we see a gradual trend for smart glasses (and other wearable computing devices) to be driven by more natural interface controls, once these technologies have time to mature as well — and they're getting remarkably close.
 

Assuming that the smart glasses concept takes off, NanoMarkets believes that it will open up significant business opportunities for suppliers of components and subsystems ranging from optical and audio devices, through sensors to processors of various kinds.  These opportunities are of two types, which we will call “volume sales” and “value-added.”  We profile these below.

As in any evolving market, NanoMarkets expect to see increased consolidation and M&A activity at the intersections of smart grid & sensor functionalities — smart metering, outage management systems, SCADA, data computing & analytics, and feeder automation — as these proliferate within the broader evolution of the Internet-of-Things (IoT). This is especially likely as broad sensor manufacturers show keen interest in developing sensing solutions for smart grid applications, and as established companies from tangential industries (AT&T and Google, for example) seek to extend their reach into smart grids. At the same time, we also expect these advanced sensor technologies will expand the addressable market base, as suppliers seek avenues to cross-sell their products into other industries such as water, gas, transportation, and telecom.

“Smart grids” promise to solve many of these problems by enabling broad knowledge and control of operations at all levels, from generation to transmission & distribution to end-use, to help better understand and take action regarding areas that are key to maintaining grid health and stability. These will depend upon real-time collection and communication of a wide range of data throughout the grid. Examples include measuring voltage and inductance levels in the T&D network, time synchronization and equipment temperatures at substations, and smart meters and energy conservation in homes and businesses.

All these multiple sensing, monitoring, and control functions will translate into enormous opportunities for various types of sensors. Below are some of the specific market opportunities NanoMarkets anticipates — some of which need more time to be available or become reliable.

Many of the firms that jumped into the smart lighting space a few years back have disappeared or been acquired under fire sale conditions.  Some apparently innovative smart lighting products have also been launched, yet have been greeted with a yawn by the lighting marketplace.

NanoMarkets continues to see smart lighting as a major business opportunity over the next decade.  But we think it will take both a new kind of technology and a different focus to make it happen