Prepare for the Sensor Revolution

The sensors are here

Our complete society is going to be interactive. Objects will be able to sense, reason, communicate, and act. Our surroundings will assess and modify according to our wants and needs. It is not too far away; in fact, it has already begun.

Sensors play a prevalent and productive role in our world. Sensors are electric transducers that translate a physical property into an electrical signal. Sensors assess physical phenomena such as pressure, light, and temperature, and then relate the recordings via electrical impulse. Sensors are found on roads, in homes, in office buildings, in industrial warehouses, etc.

Sensor technology has far advanced sensor capabilities. Sensors are not just stationary, autonomous objects; through wireless connections, networks of sensors are using their synergy to create more views into our world.

What they are capable of

The technology is inviting opportunities for sensors to function in novel ways:

- By planting sensors in objects, the objects can translate intelligence relating to its use. The object becomes interactive with its environment and its central control agency.

- Technology is enabling the size of sensors to diminish in size and augment in efficiency. Sensors as small as a couple cubic millimeters can be utilized to read an expansive area of land by communicating with one another and a centralized site.

- Sensor networks are facilitated by short-range wireless connections. As aforementioned, sensors are no longer solitary, autonomous objects, but act in an integrated fashion with other sensors to create a network of intelligence.

What they can do for your business

Sensors are used in many areas of life, but have made an impact on the face of business. What sort of things can sensors do for your business?

- Sensors provide the ability of acquiring real-time data. Information about an environment or particular situation can be relayed from wherever it is taking place in actual time. Imagine micro sensors being used on roads to assess conditions and accessed by drivers before hazards take place; or, farmers having land conditions assessed in order to implement nutrients for better food growth.

- Manufacturers will be able to better determine processes if individual objects are affixed with sensors. Each stage can be analyzed and modified according to sensor-relayed data.

- Along with the insight into products, sensors can provide a view into the habits of consumers. Tracking consumer habits along with other marketing information will enable businesses to procure and further individualize their approach towards consumers.

- Sensors virtually read their environments. This means a business will have all the criteria needed to simulate real situations. This can be applied to agriculture, the military, transportation, etc.

These are just a few possibilities arriving with the implementation of sensor technology. Experience and modifications will only inspire further developments. For instance, sensors placed in the human body can presage diseases, ailments, birth defects, etc., alerting the medical world of problems in their early, more manageable and benevolent stages.

What does all of this mean for your business?

The sensors are here and more are coming. What will the propulsion of sensor technology mean for your business? That is up to you. There are a few things a savvy business can do in order to prepare for the sensor revolution.

- Analyze the scope of your business. How can sensor technology be applied, and how can your business profit from implementing that technology? Becoming one of the pioneers of instituting the technology will move you well beyond the competition.

- Educate yourself and your peers. In is not enough for a business to analyze how sensors will affect their industry, but businesses need to educate their employees to make an impact once the revolution commences full force.

- Develop products and services conducive to the sensor revolution. The changed landscape of the world will mean products and services will have to change with it. The abundance of sensor technology means there will be a need for the storage of data, the teaching of new skills, providing security for the flux of new data, providing power to sensors, etc.

The revolution has begun. Technology has once again provided us with ingenuity, now it is time for our businesses to show the same in adjusting their resources to tailor the onset of the revolution.