News & Analysis
Trillion-Sensor Vision, Results Shared
UCSD researchers show latest efforts
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Saving the planet one sensor at a time, the backers of the Trillion Sensor Summit here shared their visions and some research working toward a fully instrumented world.
"I believe in a world with abundance -- a world without hunger, with medical care for all, with clean energy for all, no pollution," said Janusz Bryzek, chairmen and CEO of the event. "One of the components creating this world is a sensor at the bottom of the pyramid for mobile health, the Internet of Things, and wearable applications. In order to get there, we need to completely transform the economy."
Abundance will require another 45 trillion sensors, many of which haven't been developed, Bryzek said. Wearable medical sensors pose enormous potential, speakers said.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego are among those driving the trend. "Elimination of poor countries by 2035… galvanizes the student population," said Albert Pisano, dean of UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering. If I'm pumping out almost 2,000 graduates a year, and they're pumped up about this, it doesn't take much to have an army dedicated to this."
Proof-of-concepts from UCSD's Center for Wearable Sensorsincluded small, inexpensive sensors for a variety of medical uses. For example, the center has developed a proprietary board with glucose monitoring sensors that can be plugged into any smartphone, a retinal prosthesis with an implanted integrated circuit, and wireless power for data telemetry.
Joe Wang, distinguished professor in UCSD's Department of Nanoengineering and faculty director of its wearables center, showed off a variety of very small skin sensors. Screen printed tattoos with embedded sensors can monitor metabolism, electrolytes, and stress indicators, he said. The same sensors could be worn or placed on objects to measure environmental conditions such as pollution or mineral levels in water.
Real stats moving up and to the right fueled some of the enthusiasm. The mobile sensor market grew more than 200% between 2007 and 2013, and the mobile health market is expected to lower treatment costs by 35%.
"The biggest challenges are the amount of data, processing this [data], and supporting infrastructure," Bryzek said. Global health monitoring will require the cost of sensors to drop to less than 50 cents each.
Wang's prototypes may be on the right track, with price points of $1 for the tattoos and $23 for the glucose meters. However, price isn't the only or even the main factor. Bryzek said a "dramatic shift of skills" and "massive retraining" will be needed to create the technology for a trillion sensors.
Developing that many sensors "is not inevitable," according to Steve Whalley, chief strategy officer at the MEMS Industry Group. "If it wasn't for TSensors Summit, we'd be going on an evolutionary pace, and maybe we'd get there, but it wouldn't be at the pace we need for the growing population."
— Jessica Lipsky, Associate Editor, EE Times
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"I believe in a world with abundance -- a world without hunger, with medical care for all, with clean energy for all, no pollution," said Janusz Bryzek, chairmen and CEO of the event. "One of the components creating this world is a sensor at the bottom of the pyramid for mobile health, the Internet of Things, and wearable applications. In order to get there, we need to completely transform the economy."
Experimental chips from the Energy-Efficient Microsystems Group at UCSD's Center for Wearable Sensors.
(Image: UCSD)
(Image: UCSD)
Abundance will require another 45 trillion sensors, many of which haven't been developed, Bryzek said. Wearable medical sensors pose enormous potential, speakers said.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego are among those driving the trend. "Elimination of poor countries by 2035… galvanizes the student population," said Albert Pisano, dean of UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering. If I'm pumping out almost 2,000 graduates a year, and they're pumped up about this, it doesn't take much to have an army dedicated to this."
Proof-of-concepts from UCSD's Center for Wearable Sensorsincluded small, inexpensive sensors for a variety of medical uses. For example, the center has developed a proprietary board with glucose monitoring sensors that can be plugged into any smartphone, a retinal prosthesis with an implanted integrated circuit, and wireless power for data telemetry.
Joe Wang, distinguished professor in UCSD's Department of Nanoengineering and faculty director of its wearables center, showed off a variety of very small skin sensors. Screen printed tattoos with embedded sensors can monitor metabolism, electrolytes, and stress indicators, he said. The same sensors could be worn or placed on objects to measure environmental conditions such as pollution or mineral levels in water.
Real stats moving up and to the right fueled some of the enthusiasm. The mobile sensor market grew more than 200% between 2007 and 2013, and the mobile health market is expected to lower treatment costs by 35%.
"The biggest challenges are the amount of data, processing this [data], and supporting infrastructure," Bryzek said. Global health monitoring will require the cost of sensors to drop to less than 50 cents each.
Wang's prototypes may be on the right track, with price points of $1 for the tattoos and $23 for the glucose meters. However, price isn't the only or even the main factor. Bryzek said a "dramatic shift of skills" and "massive retraining" will be needed to create the technology for a trillion sensors.
Developing that many sensors "is not inevitable," according to Steve Whalley, chief strategy officer at the MEMS Industry Group. "If it wasn't for TSensors Summit, we'd be going on an evolutionary pace, and maybe we'd get there, but it wouldn't be at the pace we need for the growing population."
— Jessica Lipsky, Associate Editor, EE Times
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One trend that I'm noticing is that much of modern system design is self-monitoring, self-regulating and self-healing, compared to the "adjust and forget" approach of even fairly recent times. Take automobiles as an obvious example. Remember when you had to get frequent tune-ups, and how different the car felt after getting a tune-up? That was because the engine drifted out of optimum tune steadily, between tune-ups. These days, they might change the spark plugs once in a blue moon, but you can hardly tell the difference. That's because the car is constantly monitoring and tuning itself.
Many modern systems do this, including the Internet itself. Industrial systems, ship and aircraft controls, obviously cars, buses, trains, all of these are becoming more self-adjusting, self-maintaining (e.g. filters that automatically back-flush periodically), and self-healing, or if not self-healing, at the very least, self-monitoring.
We've addressed the ongoing changes in the medical field already, in EE Times, where people can take a more active role in self-monitoring at the very least. So I don't think this sensor explosion only applies to mechanical objects.
In homes, there is a lot that can be done in the future. Some systems, like HVAC, have clearly been improving in terms of automation (and consequent sensor use). How far in the future are self-cleaning homes? Self-mowing lawns? To me, these are imminent. More general self-maintenance might be a little further in the future.
So yes, it does look like sensors are showing up in everything, to make all of this possible. Do they all need to be globally accessible (over the Internet)? That's another question. Probabaly not.
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As for the effects on the third world - yes they could be big. In many cases there's a lack of highly trained physicians , so if those sensors can greatly simplify treatment so a nurse can offer it - it would have huge effects.
But really the more exiciting sensors are labs-on-chip , which really bring a moore's law like revolution to the world of blood tests, and medicine itself.
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