Intelligent Sensors

The basic idea of this book, which contains new computing paradigms, is that the most advanced intelligent sensing system is the human sensory system.
Section I reviews the technologies of intelligent sensors and discusses how they developed. Typical approaches for the realization of intelligent sensors emphasizing the architecture of intelligent sensing systems are also described. In section II, fundamental technologies for the fabrication of intelligent sensors and actuators are presented. Integration and micro-miniaturization techniques are emphasized. Section III presents advanced technologies approaching human sensory systems, these technologies are not directly aimed at practical applications, but introduce the readers to the development of engineering models of sensory systems. Technologies of integrated intelligent sensors, which will shortly be in use are introduced in section IV. In section V, examples are given of intelligent sensing systems which are used in industrial installations. Hardware for machine intelligence is not integrated at present, but can soon be implemented in the monolithic integrated structure. Without this machine intelligence, new functions, for example, self diagnosis or defects identification, cannot be realized. This section also demonstrates the potential of intelligent sensors in industry. Section VI introduces two interesting topics which are closely related to intelligent sensing systems. The first one is multisensor fusion. It is expected to be one of the fundamental and powerful technologies for realizing an advanced intelligent sensing systems. The second is visualizing technology of the sensed states for easy comprehension of the dynamic multi-dimensional state. This is useful for intelligent man-machine interfaces.