Embedded Sensor Design
When it comes to a modern business, data is often king. Sensors can be integrated with software to find insights on physical events and increase revenue for certain types of businesses. Read on to unveil hidden potential.
Oliver Ditsch
5/8/20242 min read
As the "Internet of Things" continues to develop as a technology class of their own, sensors shine from the rest as a practical business solution. Typically, sensors track specific physical events and phenomenons. Each different type of sensor serves a different function, and it's up to us to track the physical in creative ways to produce the end result of useful business data.
Types of Sensors
The types of physical data we can collect has improved over the last few decades along with the rest of technology.
Chemical Sensors.
Light Sensors.
Heat and Temperature Sensors.
Humidity Sensors.
Pressure Sensors.
Motion Sensors.
Flow Sensors.
Accelerometers.
Gyroscopes.
Proximity Sensors.
and more!
As you can see, there are many existing applications for tracking physical data. With this in mind, we can see that the biggest question is how we turn physics into actionable insights. In the remainder of this article, we will cover applications for some of the most broadly useful sensors for your business.
Light Sensors Applications
Just as you likely rely on sight for a majority of your daily tasks, light is a valuable resource for machine decision making. There are many clever applications with data gathered from light.
When talking about producing and processing light in an electrically embedded system, it's referred to as "photonics". Light is a form of physical radiation, and it's properties can often reflect that. It bends, propagates, and travels faster than any other medium in the known universe.
Because light exists as a frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, each "type" of light can be distinguished from others. Sensors exist not only for visible light, but light outside of these frequencies as well. This can be important for tracking different colors, recognizing different materials, or transmitting information.
Chemical Sensors Applications
Just as we at Photon Hardware have developed and integrated light sensor solutions for clients in the past, we have developed chemical sensors. Chemical sensors are particularly good at detecting volatile chemicals, something which is useful for biologically based products or things, and machinery which is sensitive to certain degradation over time.
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For instance, let's look at agriculture. Farms are responsible for producing healthy plants. Often, certain pesticides are harmful for some plants yet helpful for others. A chemical sensor provides the critical information to determine if the plants are exposed to dangerous levels of a harmful herbicide.
Additionally, in a housing environment chemical sensors can prevent harm by detecting toxic chemicals and altering those in the area to evacuate.
Typically, purely chemical sensors take advantage of electrochemical principles. Simply put, it converts chemical energy into electrical signal for the broader machine to process and execute upon.
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Heat and Temperature Sensor Applications