Sensor

A Sensor is a Device that can Sense some property of its Environment.

• AKA: Detector, Sense Element, Sensing Device.
• Context:
  • It can Measure the property.
  • It can Malfunction (and produce Missing Data Values).
  • It can be a part of a Sensing System (such as a sensor network).
  • It can range from being a Image Sensor,to being a Motion Sensor, to being a Sound Sensor, to being a Tactile sensor.
  • It can range from being a Thermal Sensor, to being a Pressure Sensor to being a Speed Sensor.
  • It can range from being a Eletromagnetic Sensor to being Gravity Force Sensing Device.
  • It can range from being a Subatomic Particle Sensor, to being Optical Radiation Sensor, to being a Infra-Red Radiation Sensor.
• Example(s):
  • a Chemical Sensor,
  • a Biosensor,
  • a Biomedical Sensor,
  • a Force-Sensing Device.
  • an Image Sensor such as:
    • a Active-Pixel Sensor,
    • a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD),
    • a Digital Imaging Device,
  • a MOS Sensor,
  • https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_sensors
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Actuator,
  • a Resistor,
  • a Capacitor,
  • a Transistor.
• See: Remote Sensing Task, Imaging Processing Task, Sensor Record, Data Value, Sensing Task, Percept.

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References

2019

• (Wikipedia, 2019) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor Retrieved:2019-10-19.
  • In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor. A sensor is always used with other electronics.

    Sensors are used in everyday objects such as touch-sensitive elevator buttons (tactile sensor) and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base, besides innumerable applications of which most people are never aware. With advances in micromachinery and easy-to-use microcontroller platforms, the uses of sensors have expanded beyond the traditional fields of temperature, pressure or flow measurement, for example into MARG sensors. Moreover, analog sensors such as potentiometers and force-sensing resistors are still widely used. Applications include manufacturing and machinery, airplanes and aerospace, cars, medicine, robotics and many other aspects of our day-to-day life. A sensor's sensitivity indicates how much the sensor's output changes when the input quantity being measured changes. For instance, if the mercury in a thermometer moves 1  cm when the temperature changes by 1 °C, the sensitivity is 1 cm/°C (it is basically the slope dy/dx assuming a linear characteristic). Some sensors can also affect what they measure; for instance, a room temperature thermometer inserted into a hot cup of liquid cools the liquid while the liquid heats the thermometer. Sensors are usually designed to have a small effect on what is measured; making the sensor smaller often improves this and may introduce other advantages. Technological progress allows more and more sensors to be manufactured on a microscopic scale as microsensors using MEMS technology. In most cases, a microsensor reaches a significantly faster measurement time and higher sensitivity compared with macroscopic approaches. Due the increasing demand for rapid, affordable and reliable information in today's world, disposable sensors — low-cost and easy‐to‐use devices for short‐term monitoring or single‐shot measurements — have recently gained growing importance. Using this class of sensors, critical analytical information can be obtained by anyone, anywhere and at any time, without the need for recalibration and worrying about contamination. Dincer, Can; Bruch, Richard; Costa‐Rama, Estefanía; Fernández‐Abedul, Maria Teresa; Merkoçi, Arben; Manz, Andreas; Urban, Gerald Anton; Güder, Firat (2019-05-15). ["https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201806739 Disposable Sensors in Diagnostics, Food, and Environmental Monitoring"]. Advanced Materials: 1806739. doi:10.1002/adma.201806739. ISSN 0935-9648.</ref>

2009a

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=sensor
  • S: (n) detector, sensor, sensing element (any device that receives a signal or stimulus (as heat or pressure or light or motion etc.) and responds to it in a distinctive manner)

2009b

• (Wiktionary, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/detector
  • Noun
    • 1. A device capable of registering a specific substance or physical phenomenon. Smoke detectors are mandatory in public buildings.

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