The Interesting Applications of Sensor

Simply, sensor is the equipment sensing external signals and converting them into electric signal; it has duple functions of measurement and conversion. The view of “there would be no modern science and technology without sensor technology” has been recognized by all over the world; more developed the science and technology is and higher the automation degree is, larger the demand for various sensors is. According to IC Insights data, global market sales of semiconductor sensor in 2011 reach $57.4 billion, up by 8% from 2010. Meanwhile, based on the strong demand of Internet of Things and worldwide intelligence, sensor market will remain rapid increase. It is projected by 2012 global market sales to represent $61.6 billion with growth rate of 7%. Sensors are widely used in automotive, biomedical, military aviation, consumer electronics, mobile communications and other fields, and particularly have endless applications in high-tech. There are also following interesting applications.

1. Smartphone

In fact, a variety of functions for smartphone depend on the built-in software and various sensors. For current smartphone, there is three-axis gyroscope, electronic compass, light sensor, proximity sensor, and even gravity sensor.

Iphone4 is the earliest phone using tri-axis gyroscope, also called MEMS gyroscopes. When rotating, the phone would generate the Coriolis force, so the direction of movement of the phone can be measured. At present, three-axis gyroscope is mainly used for the manipulation of mobile games, and the previous mechanical direction key manipulation becomes obsolete. Gravity sensor is made of elastic sensing element into cantilever displacement, belonging to new sensor technology. The series of products of Apple—iPhone and iPad, and Android-based series of handsets all adopt gravity sensor. Piezoelectric principle is utilized in the gravity sensor; the phone gravity sensing refers to building gravity rocker chip in the phone, supporting the interface and function needed for shaking and switching, switching songs and screen, flit and mute, switching videos.

2. Sports and fitness

Helmet-collision sensor is developed by ICEdot and SenseTech Company; such wireless sensor looks like ordinary stickers on surface, but it actually can detect the movement of the user, when the user’s motion state changes or falls, it can connect to Bluetooth through ICEdot, assessing its severity and giving alert with GPS automatically showing the falling position. This kind of sensor mainly targets such users as biking, extreme sports, skateboarding, motocross, which is good to reduce the time between the injury and effective treatment.

At present, Microsoft and Newcastle University researchers developed a new wrist sensing equipment; with the device, the computer can track and simulate the hand movement in a three-dimensional space. For users, they can control input with gesture, even control other devices. It is can be used in 3D games and enhancing reality technology.

3. Sensor can capture brain waves

The Mark • Maer Man is a musician; he was prepared to compose music in 24 hours when journeying across the whole United States. Then how can he compose music in the 24 hours of a day, even in dreaming; this should attribute to a sensor set. Only wearing it, it can record the human brain waves, and then generate a musical work. As for the principle, at night, he would wear a Polar heart rate monitor and Mattel Mindflex headset which can be connected to the professional Ableton Live called sequencer software. Meanwhile, along with related process, the output brain waves can be translated into ten different MIDI audio signals, finally creating the atmosphere chords soundscape with Ableton software.

The InteraXon Company also designed a device which can read your heart, getting your alpha and beta brain waves through wearing device Muse, further understanding your mind. These brain waves can recognize when you relax, when actively think, then inferring the state of mind and the level of excitement. The Muse EEG sensor can catch the micro-electrical signal output from brain activity. When you mental state is in the transition between focus and relaxation, Muse algorithm will detect this subtle change, real-time displaying it on the device via Bluetooth.

4. Biomedical

Bottle of medicine will not be the container quietly staying on the shelves; it can be a hardware monitoring whether the patient has taken medicine on time and according to the amount. AdhereTech installs a sensor on the bottle to judge whether the patient has taken a pill, or one milliliter of liquid drugs. If the patient does not take medicine on time, the medicine bottle will send reminders to patient, urging them to take medicine on time. The experiment shows generally the proportion of patients who taking medicine on time is 60%; but with smart medicine bottles, the proportion can increase to 90%.

According to the National Geographic Web site, scientists from UCLA first successfully draw a sperm 3D trajectory; the trajectory shows sperm spirally moves forward, like the same corkscrew, or a super-active swimmer. Based on the introduction of researchers, this study uses a sensor chip imaging technology, rather than the previously traditional method of using smart phones and digital camera imaging. The new technology will help to better study the behavioral pattern of the male reproductive capacity and other microorganisms.

5. Sensor can be used in wearable devices

According to Forrester’s latest report Smart Body, Smart World, the next computing revolution will bring the free sensor-wrapped wearable device, rather than smartphones and tablet PCs.

Current, 1 million women worldwide are detected with breast cancer every year, where nearly 400,000 women die of breast cancer. If the breast cancer can be detected earlier, the cure rate of early breast cancer (breast tissue has development of 5 years) would exceed more than 95%. At present, it is at least 9 years after the cancer cells develop before the cancel cells are detected through hospital’s routine breast cancer detection project, with the accuracy rates of 70% and 43.1% rendered as false positives. BSE bra advances the detection time of breast cancer cells for six years, in other words, three years later after cancer tissue development. The sensor carried on the BSE can long-term collect cancer abnormal data, and uploads it to the network, gets detection result after a complex algorithm. User can always check the test results on the Internet. Comparing with conventional detection accuracy rate of about 70%, the accuracy rate of breast cancer detected by BSE bra is 92.1%, and significantly reduces the probability of false positives.

6. Life and Leisure

This “hop!” suitcase was designed by Spanish students; three Bluetooth signal sensors are installed in a special suitcase, matching the holder’s smartphone through Bluetooth signal, obtaining smartphone’s angle and azimuth, and calculating the location of the owner through a micro-processor, keeping some distance with the master; as such with it, masters will not have to worry about emptying hand to hold handset, nor keeping returning.

In order to increase opportunity for people communicating whether through love or teaching children to improve the ability of the body language, a U.S. company launched this sensor network clothing. The suit is full of sensors, enabling detecting real-time situation in social environment, calculating the optimal posture, and telling the need-to-change different positions through sensors. Before dating, secretly wore inside, the network clothing can detect the real-time condition, real-time helping you calculate how should your posture reflect, and sending you the calculated results though the vibration of the body’s different parts with the sensor. It is said it can complement the non-confidence when making friends, remind you of adjusting from time to time.