Next smart sensors generation

Smart sensors are defined by the IEEE 1451 standard as sensors with small memory and standardized physical connection to enable the communication with processor and data network. Beyond this definition, smart sensors are defined as the combination of a sensor with signal conditioning, embedded algorithms and digital interface. They are currently highly adopted in mobile and portable devices like phones and tablets. Such types of sensors respond to the issues of power consumption, data communication and system integration at the sensor level and for predefined use cases. Some limitations of smart sensors are the lack of flexibility, absence of customization, narrow spectrum of applications, and the basic communication protocol. Moreover, there is a growing request of new and broader applications for individual sensors while integrating an increasing number of different types of sensors. Therefore, to overcome these limitations and address the new challenges, the next generation of sensors is proposed: the intelligent sensor platform. It is defined as the combination of sensor and processing with a dedicated architecture to aggregate external sensor data. The main advantages are reviewed and an implementation of an intelligent sensor platform embedding a MEMS accelerometer with a 32-bit microcontroller is described.