Sensor Devices Inspired by the Five Senses: A Review

Abstract

1IntroductionWearable sensor technology is at the forefront of popular media and at the same time is the subject of intense activity in the scientific world. Thes cientificallyd rivenq uantified self focuseso nc ollecting data on the human state to gather information to improve quality of life,t he more extreme end of the spectrume ncompasses biohacktivism and the post-humanist grinderm ovementa dvocating the use of DIY implants to augment the human body to at ranshuman state. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].T he focus of the current state of the mainstreama rt rests in augmenting the body with ar ange of relatively simplistica rtificial sensors such as temperature,a ccelerometers for posture and motion, electrocardiology,a nd basic chemical sensors sucha sg lucose monitors.I nf act the body is already at reasure-trove of informationa nd integrated sensor systems that are waitingt ob et apped by the next generation of wearable sensor devices.T he human brain like am odern computer or smartphone,c an process thousands of signals from various inputs in an instant. These primary senses were first definedb yA ristotle in Sense and Sensebilia [14] however it was rather Plato in Theateus that first postulated to humansa nd animals being an etwork of "perceptions" when Socratess tatedt hat "The nameless ones are unlimited in number, but those which have been given names are extremely numerous" [15].J ust as am odern smartphone incorporates multiple sensors such as gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer and barometers in concert to accurately determine,a ggregate and presents implified locationa nd orientation information to the end user each of the five traditional perceptionsa re the result of multiple sensory functionsw ithin the human body.Fort he purpose of thisr eview we classify the multitude of sensory systems into the Aristotle model of five key senses used to gather information about the outside world. Theh uman body represents an immense source of data collection aggregation and archiving relating to surroundings,b iochemical and temporal processes that allow the brain to understand the environment and its effecto n the body in real time.T he potential to access such ah uge reservoir of data that can be captured from existing bodily sensor systems is the next greatest challengei n sensor development. Rather than develop ever more complicated sensor devices the biggest challenge is how to interface with the existing bodily data streams and harvestt his information to aid in diagnostics,h ealth and wellbeing.Between detectiona nd conscious sensationt herei so ne more essential step that holds the key to accessing the human big data set:d igitalization. In computer terms this is what happens between the first tap of ak ey on ak eyboard and its visualization on the computers creen.W ith computers the processi sr elatively simple,p ushingakey simply closes ac ircuit generating ac urrentt hat travels to the processing unit, where its unique pattern is decoded and translated to the character [16].Inthe b...

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