Smart sensor has great potential for development

In February of this year, six students who wore snow boots walked deep into the hinterland of the American River basin through thick snow-covered forests and grasslands. They placed about 90 iPhone-sized instruments on special, 16-foot-high metal rods that automatically measure the surrounding soil moisture, temperature, and relative humidity before sending the data to the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Steven Glaser.

Glaser hopes to build the world's largest sensor network of 7,500 devices that will provide researchers and US government agencies with specific information on California's water resources for the first time. This information is very important for farmers who are responsible for the planning of the farmers and states. This network will be a large-scale testing ground for the new sensors: these sensors will both perceive and think, and at the same time consume very little power. With a D-cell battery, they will be able to work for several years.

Glazer's equipment is equipped with silicon wafers manufactured by chip makers Linear Technology Corp. and Cypress Semiconductor Corp. This wafer enables Glazer's equipment to function as a small computer. .

According to statistics released by market research firm TransparencyMarketResearch, the annual revenue of the global smart sensor market may increase at a rate of 10% per year and reach $6.9 billion by 2018. Previous sensors collected the data and sent it directly to a central server. The server then analyzed the data. But smart sensors can monitor the quality of information and then perform advanced calculations.

Susan Euustis, chief executive of WinterGreenResearch, a US market consultancy, said: “It is now a smart world. Concepts such as smart cities, smart buildings, and smart water sources have emerged and will continue to grow at incredible speeds. increase."

Smart sensor market hot

According to expected figures released by WinterGreenResearch, there are currently 65 million sensor devices installed worldwide with processors, and by 2019 this number will reach 2.8 trillion.

Linear Technology has started mass production of smart sensor products starting this month. The company’s smart sensors will be equipped with ARM-based 32-bit processors. At the same time, IBM, Freescale Semiconductor (Freescale Semiconductor), mobile chip maker Qualcomm, and smart sensor maker SilverSpring Networks Inc. SensusUSAInc. And StreetlineInc. Other companies are designing higher power processors or sensors. SilverSpring, a maker of smart sensor devices, successfully completed the IPO listing in March this year. The stock price of the company has also increased by 88% since it was listed.

The Nest thermostat is an outstanding representative of the smart sensor product market. Nest can be adjusted by mobile apps and understand the comfortable temperature that users are accustomed to. Venture company ColoradoMicroDevicesInc. A sensor prototype was also developed. If a user locks a door through a text message service, the sensor will send a notification to the user.

Lilliput's chief technology officer Kris Pister said: "I think that sensor products will be very popular and all sensors will be used to their full potential. This is similar to mobile phones and applications. Ten years ago, few people knew what an application was."

Before sending the collected data to the central server, smart sensors can quickly extract important data from the massive information. This has become a major factor in the pursuit of smart sensor products.

Dharmendra Modha, head of IBM's research project, metaphorically stated: "We have a large number of sensors but we are drowned in the ocean of data. Sensing data is growing at an incredible rate. So that our ability to process this data is far from meeting actual requirements."

Wide range of applications

According to a digital display provided by General Electric, a natural gas turbine device is equipped with 100 sensors that can produce 1,000 data per second. Smart sensors may only alert the central computer of unusual information, such as overheating or potential malfunctions.

Jonathan Collins, an analyst at ABI Research, a market research organization, points out: "The greater the degree of control depends on the sensor network, the greater the role of the sensor."

The high cost becomes a weakness of many smart sensor products. In Glazer's water projects, the cost per sensor can be as high as $500. Glazer said: "If you compare with the multi-billion dollar investment in water projects, the cost of $500 per sensor is not expensive."

Susan Stace of WinterGreen Research pointed out that with the increasing number of sensors installed, the average price of each sensor will drop from about 50 US dollars to less than 1 US dollar.

As part of the research collaboration, IBM announced a year ago that it will introduce a low-power processor for sensor products. Unlike current computer processors, this low-power processor works closer to the human brain. IBM’s Modha pointed out that the range of applications for smart sensors includes the discovery of contaminated products through odors and oil spills and tsunami monitoring on offshore drilling platforms. Of course, smart glasses that play a role in guiding blindness are also one of the areas in which smart sensors are in full swing.

The initial stage of the smart age

IBM and its partners have organized a team of more than 50 people to develop smart sensor products.

Randolph Wheatley, executive vice president of corporate marketing at smart sensor maker SensusUSA, said the company is planning to introduce higher-performance, ARM-based microcontrollers for smart sensor products.

Wetley said: "We have taken note of the market's demand for sensor products with higher processing power and larger data storage space." If the sensor reminds people that a building's water consumption exceeds the daily level, the sensor may think that there is a leak Fault and close the total water valve directly.

Streetline is building a smart sensor system that helps Streetline manage parking in 35 cities throughout the United States. The corresponding mobile program will inform the consumer where there is a parking space, and let the municipal department adjust the parking fee as needed.

According to Geoff Mulligan, chairman of the IPSO Alliance (IPSmartObjectAlliance), the industry alliance, “We are still in the early stages of the era of smart products.” The 60 members of the alliance include tech giants such as Oracle, Nokia and Cisco.