Smart sensors are transforming traditional feedback signals into digital insights. These insights drive the digitalization of various industries and help them achieve ambitious optimization goals.
Smart sensors can be used to monitor a wide variety of aspects, including light, temperature, movement, and radon levels. They can also communicate with other intelligent devices in a building.
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Motion Sensors
Motion sensors are a great way to monitor the activity in your home and alert you when someone moves around within their range. If your system has those features, it can trigger lights, security cameras, and alarms.
Motion sensor technology reads heat signatures or bounces microwaves off objects to detect movement. These devices are commonly found in security systems, lighting, and smart homes.
The most common type of sensor is a passive infrared (PIR) sensor. These sensors measure changes in the amount of infrared radiation reflected from moving objects and use that information to trigger an alarm or light when it detects something amiss.
Another type of motion sensor is tomographic, which emits radio waves to determine the distance to objects. It can detect people and pets or even catch trespassers in your home before they harm you or others.
Light Sensors
Smart sensor technology, installed throughout a building, detects movement, occupancy, light levels, temperature, and power consumption in real-time to drive down energy costs, maximize space and comfort and improve the safety of users. This data controls lighting and other systems to reduce energy consumption, reducing both power and maintenance costs.
One type of light sensor is the photoresistor, a two-terminal component whose resistance changes with the amount of light it receives. These inexpensive sensors are commonly used to gauge the light level of devices such as outdoor lights like street lamps.
Another type of light sensor is the photodiode, which changes light into a flow of electric currents. This type of sensor is more complex than the photoresistor and works by exposing a reverse-biased collector-base P-N junction to radiant light. The brighter the light, the more currents are generated. This type of sensor is more sensitive and typically 50 to 100 times more sensitive than the photoresistor.
Temperature Sensors
Temperature sensors are essential for a wide range of commercial and consumer needs. For example, they are often found in refrigeration, ovens, and air conditioners to keep food and drinks at a specific temperature or to regulate heat in electrical appliances like battery chargers.
They are also used in various medical products to quickly and accurately measure patient temperatures, including MRI imaging machines and portable ultrasound scanners. They can also be found in your daily electrical appliances, such as refrigerators and water heaters.
Temperature sensors are typically comprised of two metals that generate an electrical voltage or resistance when a temperature change occurs. This voltage can be measured and converted into a temperature reading using a thermocouple, resistance thermistor, or semiconductor-based sensor.
Humidity Sensors
Humidity sensors monitor the moisture in a room to ensure optimal comfort for the occupants. They’re used in HVAC systems to control the humidity in different rooms and reduce energy consumption.
They’re also widely used in various climate-sensitive applications like cold storage management, where humidity sensors help improve the health and safety of products. They’re particularly helpful in manufacturing environments, as they prevent machines from getting damaged by excess moisture.
Capacitive humidity sensors use two electrodes to measure a thin metal strip’s capacitance (the ability to store an electric charge) between them. The amount of capacitance increases or decreases as the surrounding humidity changes, causing variation in charge (voltage) that’s then magnified and sent to an embedded computer for analysis.
Resistive humidity sensors work on a different principle, using a tiny polymer comb that grows and shrinks as the surrounding humidity changes, directly affecting the system’s capacity to store charge. These sensors are among the most popular types, as they provide stable readings over extended usage and can detect a wide range of relative humidity (0-100%).
