Introduction
Last updated
Last updated
Sensors surround you in daily life. The world is full of them: from passive infrared sensors in motion detectors, to CO2 detectors in air conditioning systems, and even tiny accelerometers, GPS modules, and cameras inside your smartphone and tablet—sensors are everywhere! The variety of sensor applications is remarkable.
It’s safe to assume that if an electronic device is considered “smart,” it’s full of sensors. In fact, thanks to the proliferation of smart devices, especially phones, the price of sensors has been driven to affordability. Not only is it economically viable to add advanced sensors to your projects, but they vastly expand the kinds of projects you can make.
Simply stated, a sensor is an electronic component that measures some aspect of the physical world and converts that measurement into varying electrical characteristics, namely voltage or resistance. Sensors can sense things like light, movement, temperature, and touch. They are exciting because they make the physical world perceivable by computers—even tiny computers like microcontrollers.
General Purpose IO
Analog Digital / Digital Analog
Interrupts
Clock / Timers
Buses