Sensor Array-Architecture and Monitoring

Abstract

A sensor is a device which detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or otherwise responds to it. The sensor used in a particular application is sensitive to one or more sources, and when the sensor is exposed to that stimulus/stimuli, this affects the physical, chemical or electromagnetic properties of the sensor which is further processed to a more usable and readable form. Sensor is the heart of a measurement system. It is the first element that comes in contact with environmental variables to sense and generate an output. A sensor can be classified into various categories like active and passive sensors, analog and digital sensors, mechanical sensors, bio sensors, etc. In this paper we are using an array of sensors, and reading data from the sensors simultaneously and displaying it using an android application called "sense_graph" which is a scientific third party application developed by our team. We are using an array of similar sensors-Force sensors, which are capable of measuring force applied per unit area. In this paper, we are interested in measuring force/area on the bottom of the human foot and framing conclusions. The measurements are made in N/m² at a particular time interval and a graph of N/m² v/s time (sec) is plotted. There are regions in the foot where pressure could be very high or negligible for a specific posture or movement of the human body.