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    From Data to Insight: How Sensors Drive IoT and Data Collection

    The sensor is the center of the Internet of Things, and it is necessary to rely on it to connect everything in series. In fact, the sensor has a history of more than 150 years, because the progress of technology has brought great development to it and it has evolved towards high precision, miniaturization, and intelligence. This article will introduce the sensor and what impact did it bring.

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    What is a sensor?

    Sensors are used to detect changes and events in objects and transmit the received information to electronic devices, covering a wide range of detection, such as environmental signals, physical (light, heat, humidity), or chemical (smog). The development of sensors can be mainly divided into three stages. The first stage is a structured sensor that uses changes in structural to perceive; the second is a solid sensor that combines semiconductors and materials, and the last is the smart sensor based on information and processing ability, which is also the most important type of the Internet of Things.

    Types of Sensors

    There are various types of sensors that can be classified based on the different sensing ranges to detect, analyze, and process various changes (such as position, length, height difference, appearance, and temperature) occurring on-site or to predict and prevent future phenomena.


    •  Fiber Optic Sensors: Transmit light through optical fibers for narrow-area detection.


    • Photoelectric Sensors: Optical sensors used for object detection, categorized into diffuse reflection, retroreflective, or through-beam types.


    • Displacement Sensors / Distance Sensors: Used to measure distance or height, including laser, LED, ultrasonic, contact, and eddy current types.


    • Vision Sensors: Utilize imaging for inspections, including appearance, text, positioning, and defect detection.


    • Code Readers / OCR: Commonly used in manufacturing industries for reading 2D barcodes and barcodes, available in handheld and fixed types.


    • Ultrasonic Sensors: Utilize ultrasonic waves for stable detection and reflection of transparent objects.


    • Condition Monitoring Sensors: Include sensors and amplifiers, visualizing the actual condition of devices and detecting abnormal states. Amplifiers can connect various analog sensors to monitor the condition, achieving industrial IoT integration.

    Application of sensors on the Internet of Things

    The information network of big data is formed through the combination of the Internet of Things and sensors. These two complement each other and are indispensable. In the generation of the Internet rapid development, it is necessary to rely on sensors to obtain accurate information. It can apply in a wide fields such as monitoring and controlling the production process, realizing the concept of a smart home in life, etc.

    Smart sensors will be the main point for the Internet of Things. Data needs to rely on high precision and quality way to obtain the most correct information. With the development of multi-functional and high-performance devices, many circuit boards are getting smaller and smaller. Sensors are also miniaturized gradually, and these devices are often located in no-man areas, resulting in increased requirements for low power consumption, otherwise operating costs will increase significantly.

    Sensor applications

    Sensors are developing rapidly and have the characteristics of high precision, high quality, miniaturization, and low power consumption, and their application fields are also very wide, such as industry, household, medical, automotive, and agriculture.


    1.Industry: Sensors play a very important role in Industry 4.0. Compared with traditional sensors in the past, various features of smart sensors can meet the requirements better of smart manufacturing, such as performance, accuracy, and low errors in data collection. Therefore, industry demand for smart sensors has increased significantly.


    2.Home life: With the development of the Internet of Things, many home appliances have been equipped with sensors, which can not only be controlled by mobile phones but also can further analyze the effect of various products and optimize them to create a safe and high-quality lifestyle.


    3.Medical: The miniaturization of sensors brings a lot of convenience to medical treatment. It can collect data for patients and develop smart sensors with different functions in response to different diseases, accelerating the development of medical technology.


    4.Automotive: Smart sensors help to monitor the state of cars, then develop multi-level driver assistance systems, and even realize the Internet of Things to control cars and popularize smart automotive ultimately.


    5.Agriculture: Many agricultural productions rely on experience in past. Sensors can monitor temperature, water quality, light intensity, etc., so as to quantify the natural environment, create the most suitable environment for production, and improve production efficiency.


    Sensors are gradually playing an important role in various fields, and the requirements are getting higher and higher. Combined with the technology of the Internet of Things, many things can be turned into data, thereby producing more value.

    Main photo by Ersin D from Pixabay

    Source: Vecteezy

    References: SmartMeter / Wikipedia

    This article was written by Machsync, please do not distribute, give or sell for commercial use or in any way. Any use such as reprinting, excerpting, copying, and creating images is prohibited without permission.

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