What is the most important technology for China to develop in the future?
Is it chip or 5G technology?
They may all have them, but these important technologies are inseparable from an inconspicuous device: sensors.
How important are sensors?
Japan ranked it as the first of the top ten technologies in the last century, and their business community gave an evaluation: who dominates the sensor can dominate the new era.
China, the United States, Germany and other worlds have listed sensors as major scientific and technological projects in the future, and desperately want to achieve technological breakthroughs in sensors, which is enough to illustrate its importance.
Many people may be curious about what sensors really are, and why a device that is unfamiliar to ordinary people is so valued by the world's major powers.
Today we briefly popularize sensor technology and how it is changing the world.
Where is the sensor sacred?
In order to facilitate understanding, I will first popularize the concept of sensors.
Simply put, the sensor can be understood from its literal meaning, that is, a kind of induction and transformation device, it can detect temperature, sound, light and other information, and then convert them into the current, voltage (isoelectric signal) on the machine, etc. With it, the machine produced by humans can achieve intelligence.
Let's take an example: Mobile phones have a lot of features, they can take pictures, make calls, play games, right?
So how are these features implemented? In fact, the sensor detects some information outside the phone and then converts it into an electric current so that we humans can control the phone.
For example, when taking a picture, the lens captures the light of the object, and then transmits it to the image sensor, the sensor detects the corresponding light, and then converts it into an electrical signal, which is processed and displayed, which becomes the photo we see on the phone.
Therefore, the image sensor is equivalent to the eye of the mobile phone and is the core component of the shooting.
There are different sensors on the mobile phone, they can convert sound, pressure and other information into electrical signals, it realizes the functions of calls, fingerprint unlocking, etc., if the chip is the brain of the mobile phone, then the sensor and network are the facial features and nerves of the mobile phone, one is used to convert into electrical signals, one is used to transmit information.
If there are no sensors, today's smartphones are not even big brothers.
Therefore, sensors and computers, communication technology has become the three foundations of modern information technology, and the status of sensors in the future will gradually surpass the other two, which is considered by experts to be the core technology of the Internet of Things, which will change the world now and in the future.
Is this an exaggeration? How did it change the world?
Sensors in ancient China
This, but also from ancient China, we all know that China invented the compass very early, then also called Sinan, it is actually a sensor, the pointer can sense the earth's magnetic field, and then point the direction, the compass later introduced to Europe, and contributed to the era of European sea navigation, accelerating the integration of the whole world.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it changes the course of the world, right?
Compass-like sensors also include ground motion instruments, corona instruments, thermometers, etc., and these inventions have also changed human life to some extent, that is to say, sensors have been affecting the world since a long time ago.
But this does not explain the importance of the sensor, because there was no concept of a sensor at that time, but presented to everyone as a whole.
Sensors truly stand on their own, and the role of sensors to show them has been counted since the mid-20th century, and with each iteration of technological update, the role of sensors has become more and more important.
Iteration of sensor technology
The first generation of sensors is: structural sensors, born in the 1950s, is the first industrial mass production of sensors, more typical representatives are: resistive sensors, it is 90% of the use of weighing above, probably long like this: .
Like a scale is a kind of weighing, when we stand up, the pointer will find a change or display a weight.
Its principle is also very simple, this is made of metal materials, can conduct electricity, we people stand up, the metal will change shape, shape changes will cause changes in resistance and current, so that the pointer or number will change.
Basically every baby just born needs to weigh first, it can be said that the first electronic products that humans are exposed to are this, saying that it affects each of us, no problem, right?
Of course, the sensors in this period are relatively rough, and the role is limited, and later some people with more intelligent minds think: can these metals be replaced by other things, such as materials that are more sensitive to light, can they be converted into electrical signals?
The answer is of course, the core element of the image sensor we mentioned above is the light sensor, so in the 1970s, the physical sensor was born.
So since physical sensors can convert untouchable and untouchable light into electrical signals, can heat with temperature be converted into electrical signals? If heat is also possible, can other physical properties such as sound and magnetic fields be converted into electrical signals?
The answer is also yes, so the material of the sensor develops from metal to semiconductors, dielectrics, magnetic materials, etc. Various solid materials, its structure is very simple, mainly sensitive components and conversion elements, as the name suggests, sensitive components are used to sense (detect) external information, conversion is to convert the induced information into electrical signals.
The second generation of sensors is much richer than the first generation, not only a variety, but also more and more functions, like the common switches in our lives, before only manual, now there are sound sensing, light sensitivity, and touch screens, using different sensors, as well as radar in the military field, there are infrared sensors, millimeter wave radar, infrared radar, etc., are also different sensors.
These sensors have been made into a variety of detection equipment, sensors have begun to enter various fields of human beings, this time the industry has believed that there is no sensor to detect all kinds of information, then modern science and technology, can not be developed.
But this is not the end, human pursuit of science and technology is endless, the function of various devices continues to increase, the demand for sensors is also increasing, a device may require a variety of functions, this time may need to install a variety of sensors.
More typical is the screen, before the screen as long as you can touch or slide can control the mobile phone and other devices, now the screen also need fingerprint unlock and other functions.
However, to meet so many functions, there is a fatal problem: devices that are too small cannot install many sensors.
In order to solve this problem, people have thought of a way, can we recombine multiple sensors and integrate them into the same sensor? So integrated sensors were born, and people combined many sensors together or combined sensors with other components.
The more common mobile phone fingerprint sensor, it is integrated by light, pressure, temperature and other sensors.
But this is still not over, and then people think, since the sensor can be combined with the sensor, can the sensor be combined with other high-tech to make the sensor performance more excellent?
The answer is also yes, so the integrated sensor chip also appeared, it will be the sensor and small chips and other components together, so that the sensor can not only sense and convert the signal, but also process the signal, performance is improved, which is the predecessor of the third generation of intelligent sensors.
It can be said that the emergence of integrated sensors has pushed sensors to new heights.
How important the sensor is at this time, it is difficult for ordinary people to understand, but for example, everyone knows.
A mobile phone has at least a dozen sensors, a high-end car has more than 200 sensors, an airplane has more than 1,000 sensors, and our common high-speed rail sensors can reach more than 5,000.
Sensors are hidden in every device, without it, whether it is high-speed rail or airplanes, or even the space station has to stop,
The famous American magazine "Forbes" has made a selection, they listed the top 10 technology products that change the world and people's lives, and sensors ranked first.
This is the beginning of the Japanese business community's sentence: who dominates the sensor, who dominates the new era.
But do you think that's the end of the sensor's brilliance? Then you're underestimating it.
The counterattack of the sensor has never stopped, and the integrated sensor is the peak of hardware performance, but some experts are not satisfied, and they are thinking that since the sensor can integrate hardware, can the software technology also be combined? Further improving the performance of the re-sensor?
The answer is still yes, this is the third generation of sensors: smart sensors, which combine the advantages of software and hardware to improve the performance of sensors by another level.
If in the Internet era, the status of sensors and chips is on a par with each other, then in the era of the Internet of Things, experts will improve the status of sensors again, ranking ahead of chips.
In 2018, when massachusetts institute of technology was selected for global breakthrough technologies, it listed "smart sensing city" as one of the top ten most representative technologies.
Speaking of "smart cities", do you know how many sensors it will consume in the next decade? The answer is: 40 billion, is it beyond everyone's imagination?
In fact, the sensing city is not the ultimate application of sensors, the Internet of Everything is, experts unanimously regard smart sensors as the cornerstone of interconnection,
If you want to be interconnected, you need to connect the networked world with the real world, and sensors are the bridge of connection, which is also an opportunity for us ordinary people, who dominate the sensor, who dominates the future.