When taking the time to seek out sensors, one can become overwhelmed with the number of sensors they encounter in a day. These are a few of the countless sensors I found around my apartment at Berry.
This is our thermostat that tracks our apartment's heating and cooling. The sensor detects when the air is not at the desired temperature and heats/cools until it is reached.
This is a Brita water pitcher. It has an electronic sensor that tells us when the filter needs replacing.
This is my laptop touch pad. The sensor it uses is called a tactile sensor which means it is sensitive to touch, force or pressure which is useful for navigation because it translates the motion and position of touch into a relative position on the screen.
This sensor detects student's key cards and unlocks the door giving access to the hall. It does not work with just any Berry card and some cards work at different times.
This speaker is another example of tactile sensors. To turn the volume up and down, you tap lightly on the "+" and "-" buttons on either side. To turn the speaker off, you tap both sides simultaneously.
This is a fire alarm. When it senses a fire, it makes a loud noise and flashes lights.
This is a Keurig coffee maker. There are lots of sensors attached to it. One in particular detects when the water is below a certain level and flashes a light indicating the need for more water.
Very good collection here.
ReplyDeleteWow, is that a non-digital thermostat? :-P
Your laptop may also have a microphone (audio sensor) and maybe a light sensor for automatically adjusting brightness of the display, or illuminating the keyboard?
So the door with the card sensor probably also has some sort of sensor that would detect if the room was broken into - i.e. if the door was forced open? (Please don't try it.)