Seeking Suggestions for Sensors to Add To Xlinix Spartan-7 FPGA Kit for Sensor Fusion Projects

Since the Spartan-7 does not have a hard ARM core, I wonder if it will be powerful enough to handle 3d data at a decent speed. 

I do really like your idea of beam-forming microphone array. These days lots of microphones use digital output formats (like I2S), which I think could be used to build a nice big array and then leverage the programmable logic + soft processor to do the processing. 

Talking of sensor fusion, i think of what sensors would actually make sense fusing together. 

Imaging Sensor fusion (Visible + Infrared):

PCAM-5C (can be used with MIPI CSI connector on the SP701)

https://my.element14.com/digilent/410-358/camera-module-image-sensor-board/dp/2987302?st=pcam

MLX90640 thermal sensor (can be connected via one of the PMODs ) - 

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/mlx90640-thermal-camera-breakout?variant=12536948654163

Alternatively, for higher resolution infrared data, a module based on Flir Lepton can be considered.

For output, of-course the HDMI can be used, but may I suggest adding a compatible MIPI-DSI LCD instead? Reason being, this is one interface that is getting increasingly more important for those working with imaging systems, but I don't find many projects using the DSI interface with Xilinx boards. Xilinx even made the DSI IP free of charge few years ago. Perhaps the sponsor (I assume Xilinx) can suggest a compatible LCD since it's not very common. The SP701 has a MIPI DSI port btw.

InertialState Estimation/Navigation sensor fusion:

Fusing data from Gyros, accelerometers, magnetometer by means of various filters to get accurate inertial state estimation is in-itself a decent task. The following sensor has all of those sensors + barometer, and can be used for such.

https://my.element14.com/digilent/410-326/pmod-board-9-axis-imu-plus-barometer/dp/2726217?CMP=e14c-noscript&COM=e14c-noscript

In addition, a GPS sensor can be added, fusing the data with the state estimate from previous and barometer data to build a full navigation system.

https://my.element14.com/digilent/410-237/peripheral-mod-gps-receiver/dp/2211777

I also would love to see any of your mentioned sensors, they are all very interesting technologies!

I'd like to see some resistive flex sensors being used. They would enable nice visualization of orientation of flexible objects like fingers. 

And I like Doug's idea of microphone arrays.

Azure Kinect Developer Kit or perhaps a Orbbec Astra 3D Camera. Not for the faint of heart, but 3D imaging is an application worthy of Spartan.

Another decent application might be a beam-forming microphone array. (I think the new Kinect has one built-in).

LIDAR also comes to mind.

Ultra wideband RADAR modules also have a lot of potential.