The sensor is swallowing the world!

In 2011, Netscape's founder and venture capitalist Mark Anderson put forward a very innovative and already realistic view: "Software is engulfing the world." To this day, if you replace "software" in a sentence with "sensor", this view also applies.

Since the birth of the sensor, it has become the most important infrastructure for the digital society because it can help humans turn information that was once awkward and difficult to judge into accessible and more accurate data. From smart phones to smart voice devices, from energy platforms to industrial devices, sensors naturally ¡°incarnate¡± human-connected machines, humans themselves, and the epiphysical organs of the natural environment.

With the development of sensors and related software and hardware technologies such as data storage, energy storage, new materials, network infrastructure equipment, and the continuous decline in cost, the application scenarios of sensors will become more and more abundant.

It is predicted that by 2020, there will be 300 billion sensors in our daily life, the market size will reach 10.5 billion US dollars, and the marketable size of printable flexible sensors will reach 7.3 billion US dollars.
So, what are the uses of sensors today? In the future, even in the next 50 years, how will the sensor experience evolution and how will it change the world?

First, today's ubiquitous sensors
From consumer electronics to agriculture, transportation to health, energy to aerospace, and industry to urban management, sensors are deeply integrated into human production and life.

1.Consumer electronics

In the field of consumer electronics, as human demand for functions continues to increase, more and more sensors are integrated into various products. For example, more than ten kinds of sensors such as light sensors, distance sensors, gravity sensors, gyroscopes, GPS, and fingerprint sensors are installed in smart phones.

2. Agriculture

In the agricultural sector, we can monitor animal health and risks in real time through sensors installed on animals or in farm buildings to minimize animal disease and mortality and increase productivity and fertility. Through field sensors, we can accurately understand weather and soil data to determine the best time to plant, irrigate, fertilize and harvest.

3. Construction

In smart buildings, sensors can monitor the air quality, light intensity, smoke concentration, temperature changes and other data inside the building in real time, allowing us to better manage indoor air quality, reduce energy consumption, and improve living and working conditions.

4. Healthcare

In terms of health care, sensors can be used for the management of drugs and lifestyles for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. It can also help children or care workers to monitor elderly people with Alzheimer's disease and other diseases in real time. the behavior of. When an abnormality is found, you can immediately seek medical help or call emergency services.

Through the sensor, the doctor can remotely monitor the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, heart and other health indicators, and can take the electronic pill to understand the patient's medication and treatment, and give guidance and advice. Overall, sensors can reduce hospital costs, improve medical quality, reduce the frequency of expensive emergency admissions, and hospitalization costs.

5. City management

For urban management departments, sensors can help managers master the operation of underground lines and equipment such as gas, electricity, water, sewage, etc.; monitor road vehicles and pedestrian traffic in real time, and timely adjust transportation strategies to reduce traffic congestion; Drivers have free parking spaces to avoid unnecessary time wastage and reduce carbon emissions; they can even detect and track disease outbreaks and transmission paths.

6. Other areas

Without the sensor, there would be no Internet of Things, and there would be no Industry 4.0. In the fields of industry, energy, military industry, etc., sensors can achieve predictive maintenance of equipment. By analyzing and processing the data collected by sensors, it can respond to potential problems, thereby minimizing equipment downtime costs.

Second, a more exciting future

In the future, sensors will become smaller, cheaper, more accurate, more flexible, more energy efficient, more environmentally friendly, able to collect more types of data, and integrate more and more new technologies.

Smaller and cheaper

1.With the application of new platforms and new materials, manufacturers can make smaller sensors that perform as high as millimeter- and microwave-scale electronic components, and with less silicon, the cost will be substantial. reduce. At the same time, the new platform will reduce sensor design, development and manufacturing costs.
In the long run, self-calibrating sensors are very cost effective. Automated calibration reduces sensor maintenance and time and dramatically reduces maintenance costs. In addition, self-healing sensors will have a wider range of applications and lower maintenance costs, especially when disasters and risks occur.

2. Higher accuracy
At present, the research on multi-channel cooperative spectrum sensing is still in the initial stage. In the future, once the technology is mature, it will provide more accurate monitoring data than today's single-channel sensors.
More accurate, reliable, and reproducible sensors will have more applications in areas such as medical devices, and they will be more powerful.

3. More flexible and flexible
Flexible sensors are an important direction for future sensor development. Currently, flexible light sensors, pH sensors, ion sensors and biosensors are still in the early stages of development. In the future, these flexible sensors will have more innovative applications such as artificial skin, wearable sensors and micro-motion sensing.
Through microwire technology and magnetic fields, the sensor can be as thin as a hair, yet flexible, without the need for a power source, and can measure temperature, pressure, tension, stress, torsion and position without contact.

4. Better perception and more data

Future sensors will more effectively mimic human senses to detect, process, and analyze complex signals such as biohazards, odors, material pressures, pathogens, and corrosion. For example, these advanced sensors can not only perceive a large number of single analytes (such as carbon dioxide), but also break down every component of the scent.
In addition, smart dust is a vibration-driven microscopic sensor that monitors battlefields, high-rise buildings, or arterial blockages.

5. More medical applications

At present, many health-related sensors are mainly used in the field of entertainment and lifestyle, and their functions are not up to the medical level. In the future, more medical-grade sensors will pass strict regulatory approvals and implement medical applications.

With the miniaturization of laboratory systems that will accelerate the development of emerging technologies for biohazard perception, wearable sensors will become true medical-grade devices rather than simple living and entertainment. Medical testing will be easier, with one instrument that can analyze more substances and reduce the need for sample volume. For example, body tests can be done with body fluids such as sweat and tears.

Swallowable pills are an application of miniaturization of laboratory systems. For example, many health technology start-ups have used swallowable sensors to replace traditional endoscopy to reduce patient suffering. There are also some swallowable or implantable pills developed by technology companies that can be administered continuously in the body for a long time, making the patient's daily treatment easier.

6. More energy efficient

Currently, most sensors are not very energy efficient because they are always on. In the future, sensors will become smarter and driven by specific conditions that will only be activated when certain conditions are reached, while when they are in standby mode, there is almost no power consumption.

In addition, the sensor can extract energy from the surrounding environment for longer operation. For example, exercise, stress, light, or the difference in heat between the patient's body and the surrounding air can be a source of energy for the sensor.

7. More environmentally friendly

​In the future, environmentally friendly and biodegradable sensors will become increasingly popular.

For example, the sensor can use a bacteria-driven, degradable paper-based battery that can be used in fields such as farmland management, environmental monitoring, food flow monitoring, or medical testing without polluting the environment.

8. Higher complexity and better compatibility

By coordinating the work, the sensor will gain additional complexity. Sensor clusters can better coordinate the work between sensors and determine the job content and location through an autonomous learning system.

In addition, the adoption of various new technologies will also make sensors more diverse. For example, through laser technology, sensors can identify the composition of matter through a unique spectrum of matter; time-of-flight sensors measure the distance between two objects by means of infrared light pulses; they are made of materials such as crystals, special ceramics, bones, DNA, proteins, etc. Piezoelectric sensors are better able to respond to external pressures and latent heat.

In the future, advances in various basic sciences will further advance the rapid evolution of sensor technology. Sensors will become more compact, user-friendly, and human-computer interactions will be more friendly; at the same time, they will become more invisible and less noticeable. As sensors become more deeply integrated into our daily lives and merge with new technologies such as AI, sensors will make our lives better in the future of connectivity and automation.