Sensors

Sensors

Sensors are devices that measure some physical or electrical feature of an environment and translate that signal into a different signal that is meant to be read or interpreted by a human or machine. This type of devices is called a transducer, which refers to the translation of signal from one to the other. Sensors are used everywhere in the modern world, and in the electronic age of today most sensors tend to convert varying world signals into an electrical pulse that can be read by a circuit.

Their sensitivity and their range usually rate sensors. Their sensitivity can be measured by what is known as their resolution. Because we live in an analog and continuous environment, sensors cannot catch a perfect representation of the outside world they can only catch approximations. Sensors measure change and the amount of change that is required to alter the output of a sensor is called the resolution. The sensitivity required varies from application to application, but there is usually a tradeoff between resolution and range. Range refers to the maximum through minimum input values that results in a corresponding output signal, which represents them accurately. When an input is out of that range, the sensor could be damaged or destroyed at worst, or provide an incorrect output signal at best.