Calgary, AB - Imagine a motion-detecting sensor so sensitive it can monitor a baby's breathing, yet so rugged it can be crashed into Mars to measure volcanic eruptions. Now the inventor of this remarkable miniaturized sensor technology, Dr. Albert Leung of Burnaby, B.C., has won this year's top Manning Innovation Award, the Preston Manning $100,000 Principal Award sponsored by TransAlta Corporation.

Leung's sensor is called an accelerometer, a device that measures horizontal and vertical velocity or speed. His is the first inertial sensor in the world with no moving mechanical parts. Instead, his thermal accelerometer detects and precisely measures motion via a heated "bubble" of air inside a microchip.

The tiny accelerometer is no bigger than the eraser on the end of a pencil. Yet because the device has no moving parts, it can withstand impacts 50,000 times greater than the force of gravity.

"This is a bullet-proof device," says Leung, professor of engineering at Simon Fraser University.

Leung's accelerometer, unlike conventional and often costly sensors, can be micro-machined or mass-produced in standard microchip-fabrication plants. "It can be manufactured at very low cost, because there's no need to set up a fabrication line specifically for the accelerometer," Leung says.

The market for inertial sensors, now US$1 billion, is projected to exceed US$1.5 billion in 2003.

Leung's sensor is targeted for a wide variety of applications, including vehicle airbags and fail-safe systems, medical and industrial sensors, computer game "joysticks" and portable computers, home appliances, earthquake detection, and space probes to Mars and beyond.

MEMSIC Inc., a Boston area subsidiary of leading sensor-maker Analog Devices Inc. in the U.S., is now selling the technology.

Dynastream Innovations Inc., a "smart devices" company in Cochrane just west of Calgary, has developed the first commercial application based on Leung's technology. Dynastream, which has a three-year agreement with Nike Inc., has put an accelerometer sensor system in Nike's line of SDM[triax 100 athletic shoes. The system, used with a wristband display, instantly tells runners and walkers precisely how fast they're moving and how far they've gone.

"To understand the potential of this device, it is sufficient to remember that every car today has about six accelerometers used in the air bag system," says Dan Gelbart, president of Creo Products Inc. in Burnaby, B.C. "This combination of a new principle and commercial success is rare and the community should be made aware of Dr. Leung's achievement."

A company that develops "roll-over" sensors for vehicles is testing a system based on Leung's technology to detect imminent roll-overs and instantly deploy side airbags.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California wants to use Leung's sensor in unmanned space probes that would be crashed into Mars, embedding themselves in the surface to detect tremors from earthquake and volcanic activity.

The Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards Foundation has recognized leading Canadian innovators since 1982 with $135,000 in annual prize money. All of this year's recipients, announced throughout September, will be honoured at the annual awards gala Oct. 1 in Calgary.