Sensors as Information Transducers

TL;DR

This chapter reviews sensor mechanisms for converting physical signals into electronic data, introducing a new information flow-based methodology and identifying four elemental transduction processes as a comprehensive framework.

Contribution

It presents a novel methodology for describing sensing mechanisms based on information flow and categorizes transduction into four elemental processes.

Findings

Four elemental transduction processes identified: energy conversion, dispersion, modulation, and material property modulation.

The methodology provides a unified framework for describing diverse sensing mechanisms.

The approach enhances understanding of how sensors transform physical signals into electronic information.

Abstract

This chapter reviews the mechanisms by which sensors gather information from the physical world and transform it into the electronic signals that are used in today's information and control systems. It introduces a new methodology for describing sensing mechanisms based on the process of information flow and applies it to the broad spectrum of sensors, instruments and data input devices in current use. We identify four distinct elemental transduction processes: energy conversion, energy dispersion, energy modulation and modulation of a material property. We posit that these four mechanisms form a complete set for describing information transduction in sensing systems.