What is a sensor for the Internet of things?



A sensor is a physical device or a biological organ that detects and collects information about the surrounding environment and passes the information that is known to other devices or organs. The sensor device can be electrical, mechanical, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, optical or chemical sensors, placed in the vicinity of sites or network, according to different applications have various sizes, they may be separate components, can also be integrated into other products, such as the engine, intelligent temperature controller, intelligent the watch, intelligent mobile phone; the data collected by the sensors are sent back to the center of the network for storage and processing.



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What data does the sensor collect?



IOT sensor can collect any can be observed or measured data, the following part list:



The temperature and heat of




- pressure


Moisture -



-



- Vibration


The chemical gas / smoke /



The optical information, such as infrared, visible light



The fluid, such as gas, liquid, slurry



The acoustic sound and



The visual information (camera, pattern):

The electric current /



The location of



The speed of





The antenna and the sensor nodes, for the detection of flood control level



Install the sensor networking considerations:

When you plan and implement networking project, please consider the following:



What application is it? According to different uses, sensors can be installed in a confined space (such as rooms, buildings) or at a distance away from each other, for example, at construction site. Specific uses determine what type of sensor to use, what data to collect, how to send data and sensor location.



What data do you need to collect? Key tasks or time sensitive data, position sensitive data or collect some geospatial data, the data need precision sensors with a high accuracy, with specific application to determine the sensor in addition to the collection of main data also need to collect what secondary data collection, and clear the accuracy of the data.



How long is the frequency of collecting data? It can be collected continuously by default intervals, or triggering events to start data collection, or to collect data as needed. In continuous manufacturing applications, such as chemical processes, sensors need to record data continuously, but not all applications need to collect data so frequently.



In what environment does the sensor operate? The sensor needs to be protected under harsh conditions (pressure, temperature, vibration, radiation, etc.) to ensure stability and sustainability.



How much data do you want to collect? Some sensors collect only a few bytes, while other sensors, such as cameras, collect megabytes of data. The more the data is collected, the larger the storage, the higher the requirement for the data transmission process.



What is the frequency of data transmission back to the central network? With mission critical applications or time sensitive data in data collected immediately after sending the data and process, in some applications, such as automatic driving vehicle, the sensors need to be transmitted data to the local computer center for processing, and does not need to be transmitted to the central network. From an energy point of view, the higher the frequency of the data is returned, the greater the power it consumes.



How does the data return to the network center? The data collected by the sensor can be transmitted through the cable or by wireless. The specific application will determine the mode of transmission.





How to supply the sensor to the sensor? The Internet of things sensors can be powered by batteries, solar energy, or using cables. Sensors installed in remote areas or difficult to reach positions can be powered by battery power or solar power. However, it is also a difficult and impractical project to replace thousands of sensors in remote areas. In these applications, sensors should be low energy consumption and efficient, so that the battery life will be longer. The higher the data transmission frequency, the larger the data transmission and the more power consumed, in this case, we need to consider the power technology and energy supply mode of the sensor.



What is the safety requirement? Sensitive or confidential data need to be encrypted before transmission, and the data needs to be authenticated before the central network is processed.



Data format requirements? Different applications have different data formats. When the data is sent back to the central network, the platform must be able to integrate all data of different types of data.



How much is the total cost? The total cost includes the cost of purchasing sensors, and the cost of installation, integration, operation, maintenance, replacement and final disassembly. Compared to a wide range of sensor networks using a large number of cheap sensorsThe cost of small sensor networks made up of a small number of expensive sensors is low.



What are the specific technologies for the installation of the Internet of things sensors? Some sensors are part of the Internet of things ecosystem, easy to configure, and they can be deployed with limited programming.Some of them may require special programming and integration to use.