Sensors 101

Bringing the digital world to the physical world.

These are pieces of hardware that detect changes in an environment and collect data.

hen it comes to the Internet of Things, or the network of smart devices, IoT sensors play a critical role. Essentially, these sensors are integrated into devices like smartphones, doorbells, thermostats and even cars and refrigerators to capture important data that can be shared in real time with users.

Increasingly, cities, municipalities and buildings are also using devices with IoT sensors to monitor, analyze and manage resources, weather, traffic and heating and cooling systems.

What Is an IoT sensor?

An IoT sensor is any sort of mechanism or tool, such as a camera or air quality monitor, integrated into a device. These sensors gather information — like water levels, air temperature and traffic patterns — related to the environments in which they’re deployed and transmit it to the cloud via Wi-Fi, bluetooth, 5G or other mobile network.

What Are IoT Sensors Used For?

IoT sensors gather information so devices can be used remotely and data can be shared in real time. The data gathered by IoT sensors and sent to the cloud is analyzed by software that can make sense of the information and then sent to users. This data is used to track trends and gather insights about everything from efficiency and energy use in factories to athletic performance and a user’s health.

Types of IoT Sensors

These are some of the most popular IoT sensors found in smart devices like wearables, smartphones and other monitoring tools used by individuals, organizations and cities.