There is usually an industry or legislation that drives a lot of money towards research and innovation. 2 examples to this is the photography technology and batteries. As smartphones became more and more common and the cost for storage became much cheaper. There came a push to reinvent the camera imaging technology. Technologies like high dynamic range imaging (2010), panorama photos (2012), True Tone flash (2013), optical image stabilization (2015), the dual-lens camera (2016), portrait mode (2016), portrait lighting (2017), and night mode (2019) were all improvements made as part of this. The second example is of batteries. The primary driver for battery innovation was consumer electronics. Starting from devices like the Gameboy, the Walkman to early mobile phones and smart phones. But now the push is from the automotive industry. The scale is much higher and so are the technical requirements on the batteries. There is more focus on profitability and sustainability with emphasis on not just the end product but from the whole supply chain starting from an ore to the recycling plant.
