Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
unique when the different sensors are individually combined, as described in an
earlier section. The sensor principle has to consider the complexity of each indi-
vidual sensor's individual performance, when combined to a joint output, because
it has to take into consideration all the various aspects of sensing fuzziness of each
sensor. In most cases, there is a lack of well-defined parameters, e.g., the value
of water-quality or air-quality, when comparing the definition with an individual
user's qualitative definition, when hopefully being in a unstressful mode.
Therefore, one single sensor, or sensor type, indeed cannot normally perceive
all aspects of the requested information in a specific quality measurement. Con-
sequently, the multi-aspects considering operational principles as an overall sys-
tem approach is necessary in order to achieve the requested quality parameters
of interest. The quality of a measurement approach will be further discussed in
the following section. Typically, input information to an artificial sensor system
is often in a multidimensional form, which puts demands on the choice of sensor
performance or in case of a sensor array, designed to meet the required multi-
dimensional functions. This is an important factor when the sensor system tries to
obtain the happenings in the environment and transform it into an output qualita-
tive value corresponding to the sensory input. When handling complex parame-
ters in the environment, the strategy then describes a direction from a single sensor
solution towards a solution with a number of sensors, e.g., a sensor array. By as-
sembling arrays of slightly selective sensors, and maybe also complementing with
sensors of other operational principles, it will then be possible to strengthen the
multi-dimensional approach and detect complex parameters in the defined mea-
surement range.
The definition of a sensor information system in the previous page can be fur-
ther extended. We define an artificial perceptual sensor principle as:
A perceptual system using slightly selective sensors that produce a multi-dimensional con-
cept of information that is often comprised in an array of sensors with partial and overlap-
ping specificity and connected to an appropriately applied mathematical pattern recogni-
tion procedures.
Exacting demands in the measuring of complex human-related qualitative values
has the prerequisites to also emphasise on the artificial system's performance.
The present trend in sensor developments is mainly focussed on the ability to
handle the ever-increasing information flow that is coveted in the society. By using
the fundamental understanding that sensor or sensor(s) have to produce specific
and local related data to be delivered in time, also where cost is a competitive fac-
tor. There is therefore a need for a more complete insight of merging real time
data with earlier knowledge and other available information. Further, in case of
achieving requested effectiveness, the interaction should be presented to the in-
dividual user at the most appropriate time and in an acceptable quality. In the
future, the amount of requested information will be highly focussed and competi-
tive. The most determining factor for a system's credibility is considered to be how
the artificial sensor system is able to present the complimented information to the
user. Proper planning and effective control of a sensor system that is intended to
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