Sensor
Wiki, Facts

 Sensor facts

• A sensor is a device that converts real world data (Analog) into data that a computer can understand using ADC (Analog to Digital converter)nSensors 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 micro controller platforms, the uses of sensors have expanded beyond the most 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 need to be 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 higher speed and sensitivity compared with macroscopic approaches