Making sense of the smart sensor opportunity

What do the more than 400 million sensors in market today have in common? While there are a variety of sensor types — electronic sensors, biosensors and chemical sensors — they all have the same job, to measure a physical property. This property can be temperature, humidity, pressure, level, or flow, to name but a few — and record, indicate, or otherwise respond to this measurement. The other thing they have in common? The need to get smarter.

By ‘smart’ we mean the sensor doesn’t only measure the signal or property, but processes data from the signal and transmits the data via a network (local or internet) to a device or machine in a timely and actionable manner. That bears repeating. Actionable data when and where it’s needed.

Nowhere in the sensor market is the need for actionable real-time data more relevant than the analogue niche. This subsection of the $50 billion sensor industry alone accounting for millions of sensors that possess analog voltage and current outputs but aren’t being monitored.

Today, you’d be hard pressed to find an industry that wouldn’t benefit from a smart sensor network. For example, sensor networks can be used in civil engineering to monitor the structural integrity of bridges – providing real-time information on potential structural issues. Home healthcare patients can have their vitals monitored in real-time and managed remotely. Forest fires can be detected by sensor networks so that they can be managed and fought through early detection. The list goes on.

These field applications of sensor networks can contribute to better customer and patient care, more efficient use of resources, and even a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for dozens of industries.

You can read the rest of this article in the September issue of Electronic Specifier Design by clicking here.