Chapter 2: Sensing the World

This chapter introduces the principles and applications of sensors used in a wide variety of embedded systems. Passive sensors measure attributes of the world such as temperature, pressure, humidity, light intensity, and atmospheric composition. Active sensors use energy-emitting technologies such as radar and lidar to detect objects and measure their position and velocity.

We will examine a broad range of sensor types as well as the communication protocols used for transferring sensor data into a processor. The chapter also discusses the processing an embedded system must perform on raw sensor measurements to provide actionable data for use by a processing algorithm.

After completing this chapter, you will have learned about many of the different types of sensors used in embedded systems and will understand what passive and active sensors are and will be familiar with several types of passive and active sensors. You will also understand some of the...