Since the invention of sensors, they have become the most important infrastructure of the digital society because they can help humans transform previously unknown and difficult-to-judge information into easily accessible and more accurate data. From smartphones to smart voice devices, from energy platforms to industrial equipment, sensors have naturally become extensions of the human body that connect machines, humans themselves, and the natural environment.
With the development of sensors and related hardware and software technologies such as data storage, energy storage, new materials, and network infrastructure, as well as the continuous decline in costs, the application scenarios of sensors will become increasingly diverse.
This article is divided into two parts, outlining eight future trends in sensors and how sensors will change our lives.
Eight major development trends in future sensors
In the future, more medical sensors will appear in our lives. Sensors will become smaller, cheaper, more accurate, more flexible, more energy-efficient, and more environmentally friendly, capable of collecting more types of data and integrating more and more new technologies.
1. More medical applications
Currently, many health-related sensors are mainly used in entertainment and lifestyle sectors, and their functionality does not meet medical-grade requirements. In the future, more medical-grade sensors will undergo rigorous regulatory approval and achieve medical applications.
The miniaturization of laboratory systems will accelerate the development of emerging technologies for biohazard detection, and wearable sensors will become truly medical-grade devices, rather than simply for everyday life and entertainment. Medical testing will become easier, with a single instrument capable of analyzing more substances and reducing the amount of sample required. For example, health tests can be completed using bodily fluids such as sweat and tears.
Swallowable pills represent an application of miniaturization in laboratory systems. For example, many healthcare tech startups are using swallowable sensors to replace traditional endoscopy to reduce patient discomfort. Other tech companies are developing swallowable or implantable pills that can deliver medication continuously over a long period, making daily treatments easier for patients.
2. 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 stress, pathogens, and corrosion. For example, these advanced sensors will not only be able to detect large amounts of single analytes (such as carbon dioxide), but also decipher every component of an odor.
In addition, smart dust is a microscopic sensor driven by vibration that can monitor various situations such as battlefields, high-rise buildings, or arterial blockages.
3. Smaller and cheaper
With the application of various new platforms and materials, manufacturers can produce smaller sensors with performance comparable to millimeter- and microwave-scale electronic components, and with the use of less silicon, costs will be significantly reduced. At the same time, the new platforms will also reduce the design, development, and manufacturing costs of sensors.
In the long run, self-calibrating sensors offer significant cost-effectiveness. Automatic calibration reduces the frequency and time required for sensor maintenance, substantially lowering maintenance costs. Furthermore, self-healing sensors will have a wider range of applications and lower maintenance costs, proving particularly useful in the event of disasters and risks.
4. Higher accuracy
Currently, research on multi-channel collaborative spectrum sensing is still in its early stages. In the future, once the technology matures, it will provide more accurate monitoring data than current single-channel sensors.
More accurate, reliable, and reproducible sensors will find more applications in fields such as medical devices, and their functions will be more powerful.
5. More flexible and adaptable
Flexible sensors represent an important direction for future sensor development. Currently, flexible optical 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.
Using microwire technology and magnetic fields, sensors can be as thin as a human hair, yet flexible, requiring no power source, and can measure temperature, pressure, tension, stress, torsion, and position without contact.
6. More energy efficient
Currently, most sensors are not very energy-efficient because they are always on. In the future, sensors will become more intelligent and condition-driven, activating only when a certain condition is met, and consuming almost no power when in standby mode.
In addition, sensors can also obtain energy from the surrounding environment to achieve longer operation. For example, motion, pressure, light, or the heat difference between the patient's body and the surrounding air can all serve as energy sources for sensors.
7. More environmentally friendly
In the future, environmentally friendly and biodegradable sensors will become increasingly popular.
For example, sensors can use bacteria-driven, biodegradable paper-based batteries. Such sensors can be used in fields such as farmland management, environmental monitoring, food distribution monitoring, or medical testing without polluting the environment.
8. Increased complexity and better compatibility
Sensors acquire additional complexity through coordinated operation. Sensor clusters can better coordinate the work among sensors and determine their tasks and locations through autonomous learning systems.
Furthermore, the adoption of various new technologies will make sensors more diverse. For example, through laser technology, sensors can identify the composition of a substance by its unique spectrum; time-of-flight sensors can measure the distance between two objects using infrared light pulses; and piezoelectric sensors made from materials such as crystals, special ceramics, bone, DNA, and proteins can better respond to external pressure and latent heat.
In the future, advancements in fundamental sciences will further drive the rapid evolution of sensor technology. Sensors will become smaller, more user-friendly, and enable more intuitive human-computer interactions; simultaneously, 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, they will make our lives better in a future world of interconnectedness and automation.
How will sensors change our lives?
In 2021, there were 300 billion sensors in our daily lives, with a market size of $10.5 billion, while the market size of printable flexible sensors reached $7.3 billion.
At the same time, as tens of billions of data transmission devices connect to the internet, they will change the way we live and work.
City
Today, more than half the world's population lives in urban centers, and by 2050, nearly two-thirds will reside there, meaning 2.5 billion urban residents will live, use, and transport in cities. This is a nightmare scenario for cities today, as traffic, smog, crime, overflowing garbage bins, and inefficient lighting account for a quarter to half of urban electricity budgets. But technologies currently being tested will help future cities better cope with the impending influx of migrants.
Traffic lights with embedded video sensors can adjust the green and red light levels based on the location and time of vehicles. This is a win-win situation, reducing both congestion and smog, as vehicles at red lights consume 17% more fuel in urban areas.
In the Barcelona market, sensors embedded in parking spaces can transmit real-time information about available spots to users looking for parking. Siemens recently provided funding to a startup to build drones that can guide cars to available locations. Sounds insignificant? Not at all: up to 30% of traffic congestion is caused by drivers pacing the streets looking for parking.
Tel Aviv is addressing traffic congestion on busy roads by providing a designated lane for buses, shuttle buses, taxis, and car-draining vehicles, while also allowing impatient and affluent commuters to use the designated lane. Sensors on the road will identify car license plate numbers and automatically charge drivers' credit cards based on road traffic conditions.
In San Diego, smart LED streetlights only turn on when pedestrians or vehicles approach—the city recently replaced 3,000 old streetlights with sensors, saving $250,000 annually. Meanwhile, in an effort to curb hooliganism, the British are testing a light that flashes an extra bright light when it detects banging and shouting, and is equipped with a camera that streams live video to the cloud.
In Philadelphia, they have invested $4,000 in solar-powered trash cans (called Big Belly) to shred garbage and send letters to dispatchers requesting to collect them only when they are full. Philly has been able to reduce the number of weekly garbage collections from 17 to 3 and achieve $1 million in annual savings on fuel, maintenance, and labor costs.
Home and Office
Refrigerators will alert us when milk spills; we can turn on our coffee makers from the comfort of our beds… Many similar things will become a reality in the next decade or more. While smart appliances have dominated the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas for the past few years, no single product or brand has yet emerged as a leader. RNR Market Research estimates the market was worth $20 billion last year, and insiders describe this rapidly growing market as dynamic and chaotic.
Nest thermostats are the most groundbreaking product to date, especially in terms of power saving. Thanks to their simple design, a more user-friendly interface than existing programmable temperature controllers, and support from Google (which provided $3.2 billion in seed funding in 2013), Nest has garnered significant attention in Canada, the UK, and the US.
Thermostats primarily control your home's energy consumption, rather than being consumed by your appliances, lights, TV, or computer sound system. Nest claims its devices learn about users' daily habits, then program themselves, allowing users to control home appliances via their smartphones. This can save users up to 20% on electricity.
Other products are more about novelty. For example, a major highlight of CES 2018 was Tagg, which can remotely track the location of your dog or cat. Amazon also launched a branded button that you can stick around your house to easily order household items like laundry detergent and toilet paper. Then there's Brad, a smart and helpful toaster that checks and compares itself to other toasters in its network to see how much activity they generate, and if it feels ignored, it will automatically move to remind you.
And then there's Apple. Its HomeKit platform aims to provide a gateway, a common language, for the smart home industry, allowing developers to create device control apps. Apple typically invests only in markets with huge potential, and RNR data suggests the smart home market could grow to $60 billion by 2020.
Office buildings have also changed, all geared towards minimal efficiency and employee convenience. For example, Cisco controls core functions in 300 buildings worldwide from four locations, including climate, power usage, and security. The company anticipates that when an executive drives into the garage, an automatic signal will be sent to bring the elevator to her and turn on the lights in her office.
Buildings with sophisticated internal climate control systems have become more common. For example, Manitoba Hydro...
Hydro's new skyscraper features a massive natural humidifier—a multi-story, humidified room filled with tropical plants and a water system connected to pipes that circulate humid air throughout the building. The system knows when to open and close the blinds, letting in sunlight (to benefit from free solar heat) or keeping it closed.
Medical
Technologies designed to help baby boomers live comfortably are thriving. This is unsurprising, as nearly 15% of Canadians are now 65 or older, a figure projected to rise to 23% within 20 years. New-generation sensors can detect if a patient's condition is worsening at home and immediately communicate with their medical team.
Philips—best known for its light bulbs and electric toothbrushes—invented a pillbox that opens when you take your medication and sends a message to your family or nurse to confirm that you have taken it. The Dutch company, which recently spun off a new healthcare subsidiary, Philips Healthcare, is a leader in the field and is now working to find a way that is as easy for young people with smartphones as it is for 80-year-olds with degenerative diseases and dementia.
Their sensors are unique, much like those used in neonatal units to monitor premature infants. Since they can't be placed directly on the skin, the sensors instead use high-definition cameras to monitor skin color, breathing, and temperature, alerting nurses to any changes. These devices will ultimately help doctors and nurses care for and monitor more patients at home and in hospitals. The smart beds currently used at Presbyterian Hospital in New York can immediately notify patients whether they have woken up and inform the nursing station.
Furthermore, the market for fitness trackers like Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Suto is booming, with a valuation exceeding $2 billion and 84 million units sold to date. These monitors measure heart rate, sleep patterns, diet, exercise, and more, transmitting the data to mobile apps. Soon, this information will be sent directly to your healthcare provider or insurance company, who will still believe you—yes, you exercise four times a week and always take the stairs. John Hancock (a subsidiary of Manulife), an American insurer, offers customers up to 15% more in premiums if they provide data demonstrating a healthy lifestyle.
Next: Subcutaneous implantation. Mission-driven Medtronic has already marketed a glucose implant that can help people with diabetes control their blood sugar.
manufacturing
The Harley-Davidson motorcycle plant in York, Pennsylvania, built in 1973, is a typical assembly line operation. But a few years ago, it received a high-tech upgrade from Cisco. Now, a series of sensors connected to what's called a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) collect data from the factory floor to pinpoint any problems. When it was discovered that a rear fender was obstructing the process, managers changed the layout, allowing parts to flow directly to the production line instead of being manually collected and moved. In another room, sensors can determine if airflow and humidity are optimal and correct them if necessary. This system isn't cheap.
One analyst stated that installing a manufacturing execution system (MES) in a single factory costs between $500,000 and $1 million. However, according to SAP (which provides the software to Harley-Davidson's factory), the factory can now produce 25% more bicycles and reduce the workforce by 30%. It can complete deliveries in just six hours instead of delivering 1,700 bicycles in 21 days.
In Germany, Siemens' Amberg plant produces nearly 12 million programmable logic controllers (PLCs) annually. (A PLC is a switch that can control a wide variety of systems, such as cruise ships, ski lifts, and assembly lines.) Miniature sensors embedded throughout the manufacturing and assembly process help the company virtually eliminate defects: it claims its PLCs are perfect 99.99885% of the time.
Greater "visibility"—from sensors to real-time information from smartphones and tablets—also significantly reduces machine downtime, as managers can identify bottlenecks and existing or impending maintenance issues before they escalate. Accenture recently reported that IoT technology can reduce average maintenance costs by 12%, repair expenses by 30%, and downtime by 70%. It can also save on electricity costs, one of the major expenses in a factory, through smart energy management systems. Electricity prices are automatically incorporated into machine operating schedules, allowing factories to avoid price peaks.
As General Electric (GE) Chairman Jeff Immelt once said, "If you go to sleep last night as a manufacturing company, you will wake up this morning as a software and analytics company."
transportation
The new Tesla electric sedan retails for $70,000. Furthermore, it boasts an enviable 0-100 km/h acceleration time of under 4 seconds and weighs only 435g on a single charge. If you're low on juice, the car's navigation system will guide you to the nearest charging station. Elon Musk's latest generation of cars is equipped with Autopilot, which uses a combination of cameras, radar, and 360-degree sonar sensors to autonomously navigate open roads and stop-and-go traffic, finding not only parallel parking spaces but also safe parking. The cameras can also read speed limits and warn the driver to slow down, move away from your lane, and stay away from the driver's seat.
Moreover, Tesla's situation has been steadily improving, thanks to its internal networked software that sends a constant stream of data to the company's engineers. Since the car's release, programmers have made several software upgrades to improve its capabilities, enabling it to warn the driver when other vehicles are in the blind spot and automatically dim the high beams when another vehicle approaches.
All of this means that while your car is stationary, its functionality at the point of sale is rapidly receding. Established companies like Mercedes-Benz are also launching smart cars. At a research center in Silicon Valley, a team of engineers and programmers is refining a model that can interact with smartphones, collect your appointment information, suggest routes to your destination, and display real-time traffic information. In May, Freightliner (a subsidiary of Daimler, along with Mercedes-Benz) received the world's first Nevada license for a robotic truck, which has already conducted 15,000 kilometers of testing on the state's roads (albeit with an operator).
Research firm Gartner estimates that by 2020, there will be 250 million connected cars on the road globally, many of which will be capable of autonomous driving. There are 8 million traffic accidents and 1.3 million crashes each year; Cisco's Smart Connected Vehicles division has proposed that autonomous vehicles could eliminate up to 85% of frontal collisions. They could also help alleviate traffic congestion because they can communicate their location to each other and thus get closer than human-driven vehicles. Traffic experts call this "connectivity." Packing more cars onto the same road space could help save drivers at least 90 billion hours they currently spend in congestion, generating 220 million tons of carbon emissions and wasting at least $1 trillion in fuel costs and productivity.
Aerospace
The aviation industry has been slow to adopt new technologies—for example, the U.S. air traffic control system still operates on rickety computer infrastructure built in the 1970s. In a way, this is understandable: when we're talking about massive mobile devices 30,000 feet tall, the consequences of technical malfunctions are dire.
The fact that this technology, capable of preventing tragedies like the Germanwings incident—where a disgruntled co-pilot locked onto the captain and deliberately flew into a French airline's airspace—already exists makes it all the more pointless. Aircraft have long been equipped with sensors that collect data on fuel efficiency, altitude, position, and maintenance issues. But this data is typically only processed after the aircraft has landed. With advancements in connectivity and data processing software, there's no reason it can't be sent and analyzed during flight. The same technology could also be used to overlay pilots in crisis situations, as with Germanwings, or more frequently to load the position of each aircraft—which would greatly aid the search for MH370.
But changes are slowly coming. Sensors in aircraft engines can now detect and isolate emerging problems by measuring the exhaust temperature of jet engines, enabling communication with pilots and ground personnel while the aircraft is still in the air.
In terms of efficiency, GE developed a tool that measures fuel consumption and cleverly adjusts wing flaps (and other components) to reduce unwanted drag. This technology helped Italian airlines reduce fuel consumption by 1% in one year. With industry-wide fuel spending hovering around $30 billion annually, even such small savings are significant.
The railway industry is also slowly modernizing. Network Rail and Cisco in the UK are installing sensors, along with those along the tracks, to notify central command if maintenance is needed or if there is a threat of nearby landslides or floods. This will reduce approximately 1.3 million hours currently spent on railway inspections.
New York commuters are using the internet to thank their short commutes. The city's Canarsie subway line recently installed siemens tracks and trains that can pinpoint locations more precisely than the old-fashioned automatic block signaling system (which used trackside lights to tell trains to stop and proceed as they passed designated points). Because the smart tracks know the exact location of the trains, it means that the intervals between trains don't need to be as large, allowing more trains to run on busy routes—26 times per hour instead of 15.
Shipping has also become involved. During Germany's post-World War II economic miracle, Hamburg-Nönnler, a major German port city, has faced several related problems in recent years. Of the 550 trucks that arrive at the port daily, many are idle for hours in long queues waiting for ships to enter, or moored in nearby residential areas because the port area has very few ports.
Every year, 10,000 ships unload there, and often too many ships arrive simultaneously, congesting the relatively small port. Given its historically significant location and high population density, expansion has been slow. Now, thanks to a project by Cisco and SAP, these ships and 9 million containers are being tracked through the port (and their arrival times are constantly updated), allowing trucks to schedule timely pick-ups and deliveries. Truck drivers can even remotely book parking spaces, avoiding driving around looking for parking or blocking other parts of the city.
energy
The power grid is designed to provide electricity on demand, delicately balancing supply and demand—a challenge because demand fluctuates with time, weather, and season. Heat waves, blizzards, and even the Oscars can strain this aging infrastructure. To meet sudden peak demand, backup power plants and diesel generators must be on standby, consuming scarce resources. This is far from efficient.
The basic principle behind the so-called smart grid is simple: electricity is priced based on demand, and this information is instantly transmitted to smart meters, thermostats, and home appliances so they can obtain the electricity they need during off-peak hours when it's cheapest. This system uses market forces to balance system load, and in theory, should make the grid less susceptible to blackouts and power rationing.
Pilot projects, particularly in Italy and Texas, have demonstrated that the theory can work in the real world. The US has set 2030 as an informal deadline for realizing most components of a smart grid; Hydro One in Ontario is one of many regional utility companies globally that is currently doing so. While it has already repurposed many smartwatches, it will still be shooting in 2025.
Currently, they simply send time usage data directly to the utility. But in the future, electricity meters will be able to receive information about pricing and the total demand on the system, and manage themselves accordingly.
Power lines and pipelines have also undergone high-tech upgrades. Data collected by sensors within the lines is analyzed to detect and isolate maintenance problems. Furthermore, predictive software is already on the market that can predict which trees are most likely to fall and remove lines. Cisco-built pipelines are lined with sensitive fibers that can directly sense leaks and provide radio-assisted detection. For aging pipelines, GE has developed software that can process seismic data, terrain details, population density, and the location of hospitals and schools to help make maintenance decisions on a continuous basis or in emergency situations.
The growth of renewable energy largely depends on smart grids. According to the International Energy Association, renewable energy will overtake natural gas as the world's second-largest energy source by next year (coal will remain in the lead). In Canada, wind and solar power are currently the fastest-growing power generation sectors (although they still only account for a few percent of the total). Because the energy produced by solar and wind farms varies over time, they may put greater strain on the environment. Solar panels are able to deliver the energy they produce. It still involves stacking these panels into a grid and finding a scalable battery to store the overflow when we don't need it.
Wind energy faces similar integration challenges, although the latest generation of turbines themselves have already benefited from IoT technology. Universal turbine generators built at the forefront of wind farms can alert those behind them to approaching gusts, prompting them to immediately adjust the blade angle to protect themselves from damage and extend their lifespan. A relatively new software program also processes data collected by turbine sensors and suggests optimal angles to generate more electricity, increasing wind farm output by 5%.
agriculture
While we may have the idyllic scenery of a typical family farm, farmers have always been early adopters of technology—after all, anything that helps them earn a meager living from the land is a good thing.
Today, most farmers use GPS-enabled smartphones on their land, loaded with agriculture-related apps. With the dramatic increase in farms—the average distribution in the United States has doubled in the last 25 centuries—farmers (or, and increasingly, large companies with these businesses) have rapidly deployed data-collecting, networked devices to help track them.
New machines from John Deere can not only till, sow, and harvest, but also collect data from farmers, including air and soil temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and rainfall. In arid and dry regions, intelligent irrigation systems apply just the right amount of water in appropriate places and can detect leaks in water pipes. One company has developed a sensor that can detect high counts of a specific pest and then release pheromones that interfere with their mating, thus reducing the need for pesticides. Even dairy cows are now transmitting data in real time; a Dutch company has created sensors that, when attached to individual animals, can tell farmers which animals are overheating, pregnant, or sick.
Conclusion
With the advancement of information technology, the status of sensors has also risen, because much information that was previously imperceptible is now being collected by advanced, newly invented sensors, becoming data that serves to improve our lives.
The world we live in today is filled with all kinds of sensors. The future of sensors has arrived.
