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Taken from the report "Smart Surfaces Markets 2015-2022"
NanoMarkets believes an emerging opportunity for advanced materials, sensors firms and others is presented by so-called smart surfaces. Smart surfaces are most broadly defined as any material surfaces that re-arrange their morphology or composition--and self-enhance their functionality--in response to changes in the ambient environment.
As this rather abstract definition suggests, there are numerous applications and end-user sectors to which smart surface technology can be applied. However, NanoMarkets believes that three in particular stand out in terms of their market potential: the automotive sector, the budding Internet-of-Things business, and healthcare.
Each has its own structure and market dynamic. As a sign of the times we note that Microsoft in a recent promotional video showing where it expects technology to evolve to in the medium-term future, specifically mentions smart surfaces.
Smart cars: Where smart surfaces begin
The dominant meme in the automotive space right now is "intelligence," at every level. Automotive surfaces--inside and outside--are now much talked about as a location where this intelligence will reside. And automotive is really the main place right now where smart surface commercialization is highly visible.
Johnson Controls, one of the world's largest suppliers of vehicle interiors, has adopted smart automotive surfaces as an important part of its strategy and has reportedly poured very large sums of money into R&D in this area. Its current focus seems to be on smart surface technology that can change the color of a car's interior. But other tier-one companies are also active in this space:
* NanoMarkets particularly notes the presence of some big firms from the world of advanced materials. Bayer, for example, has done work on self-healing surfaces for the automotive sector using polyurethanes. BASF has also made an investment in SLIPS Technologies, a firm with a self-healing/self-cleaning technology that has applications in the auto segment.
* The big car firms are there too. Volkswagen funds work at the Fraunhofer Institutes on smart surfaces and GM has done its own R&D on shape memory materials for auto applications.
Smart surfaces: Essential...