Talk:Sensor

Major Deletions from Chemical Sensors

I removed a lot of content from the chemical sensor section because it didn't name any actual sensors; it just made vague implications that chemical sensors were used in application A and application B.

I think the article is better if it has the same format as the electrical and mechanical sensors. I.e. this article should be a large index of sensors and if readers want details they can go to the specific sensors.

I think general information that applies to most or many sensors is fine but not loads of details about specific sensors. That makes the article unwieldy.

Clan-destine 20:40, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Sound Sensors

Perhaps a note should be added that sound sensors are pressure change activated. The inclusion here of seismic sensor has me scratching my head. SNR would be an issue for any device I can envision. Does the author mean 'seismic activity detector' -- which I understand is a microphone set atop a volcano, and is of limited quantitative utility? Great article overall!!! P.S. I'm removing from most wanted list... this is clearly no longer a stub! Fabartus 02:26, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

State of page

Added cleanup notice. Page still needs a lot of organising/tidying.--Light current 23:51, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

explain, please. Kaverin

Proposed merger

Proposed merging in Detector, at least the parts pertaining to the general sense of the word. Please discuss at Talk:Detector. -- The Photon 05:19, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

sensor basically consists of two stages: transduction and transformation.the transduction stage may be called as detection or the detector stage

See comment in definition below. A sensor in not a transducer. Sensor and detector are not the same. The output of a detector is "yes" or "no", in response to a measured property. The output of a sensor is proportional to the magnitude of the measured property. --Rabbiz (talk) 19:20, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Definition

This article does not have a definition of sensors, just proceeds straight to the Overview. Can someone pop it in there please? Leemorrison 14:04, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

The first sentence is, today, an adequate definition. [Though, by using 'device' and by using 'observer' and 'instrument', it seems to exclude neurons: certainly an important kind of sensor.] Joaquin 21 December '08

Also, the article says "A sensor is a type of transducer", but the transducer article has a list of types of transducers and sensor is not in that list.

A sensor is not a transducer. (I worked 20 years in this field). It is the other way around. A sensor produces a raw output which is not yet calibrated or corrected for stray errors. A transducer is a sensor to which electronic circuitry is added to produce a calibrated readable signal. --Rabbiz (talk) 19:15, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[I don't agree with Rabbiz' argument, but he is certainly correct: a sensor is not a transducer; not if we accept this article's understanding of 'transducer'.]

Some sensors are not, as transducer is defined in this article, transducers. The article gives us an example in its second sentence: a mercury thermometer.

The article says "Because sensors are a type of transducer, they change one form of energy into another."

But a mercury thermometer does not change one form of energy into another. The thermometer comes to the temperature of its environment by absorbing thermal energy from the environment or releasing thermal energy to the environment. The "form" of that energy does not change.

There are only three changes: the environment and the thermometer come to the same temperature; the volume of the mercury changes; as a result of the volume change, the length of the tube that contains mercury changes. None of these is a change in the "form" of the energy present from one "form" to another.

But then, the article is also wrong about what a transducer is.

A transducer is "any device by which variations in one physical quantity (e.g. pressure, brightness) are quantitatively converted into variations in another (e.g. voltage, position). [OED II]"

So, a thermometer is a transducer: it is a device by which variations in one physical quantity (temperature) are quantitatively converted into variations in another (length).

[The examples in the first paragraph of the article (thermometer, thermocouple) and the statements about those examples are correct.]

This article needs serious contributions: from someone with a solid understanding of the concept and related concepts; from a good copy editor. --Joaquin 21 December '08

May 9th 2008 restoration to 20 April 2008

Massive vandalism deletion was incorrectly edited, causing significant loss of material. Restored and updated the one valid edit edit. Please monitor articles you watch for deletionist vandalism by back-comparing to your last edit. Thanks, Leonard G. (talk) 01:07, 10 May 2008 (UTC)