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Examples

Add the results of your Sensor Walk here.

For this assignment, catalog all the sensors you come across in a typical day (as is done below). Another possible exercise would be to go through a non-typical day, i.e.: if you're traveling, going to the dentist, a museum, etc., and catalog all the sensors you notice. You could also limit yourself to a geographic area and go on a sensor safari... around your apartment-block a department store.

Everyone should add references where you can for those who want to research further. Add your own notes, sources, etc. below. Let's see how many of them we can come up with! tigoe & jamie & Jeff

Spring 2008 Sensor Workshop Class


Anaid Gomez Ortigoza :: February 08, 2008

Elevator sensors to keep the doors open while people walk in and out.

Temperature sensors of different buildings that adjust the heaters inside.

Stoplights that make noise while they’re in DONT CROSS and the noise stops when you can cross (59th street around the subway station).

Accelerometer in the iPhone and digital cameras.

Touch sensors on the iPhone.

Noise alerts when people walk into shops.

Automatic doors to let you into places.

Light sensor on the computer that makes my keys glow when the lights start to dim.

Smoke detectors in my apartment.

The kettle has a sensor to tell me when the water is boiling. I assume it’s some sort of pressure sensor that gets triggered by the steam.

Remote control for the ipod has an IR signal.

Out of all of this I was intrigued by the stoplight and wondered how many of them have this system i’d never noticed with the sound. Also how they are coordinated in order to help reduce traffic and deal with it properly.

Eun Jung Park :: February 11, 2008

1. Night light – light sensor

2. Heating system in my room

3. Fire alarm – smoke sensor

4. Elevator - weight sensor

5. ATM – touch screen

6. Bookstore – barcode reader

7. Auto flushed toilets in a public bathroom – IR sensor

8. Auto sinks in a public bathroom – IR sensor

9. Security sensor bars at the store – magnetic sensor(?)

10. automatic doors – IR sensor

11. Barcode scanner - Barcode

12. Conveyor belt at grocery store– IR sensor(?)

13. Iron – temperature sensor – the little light on the top of the iron is turned on when it is heated enough.

14. Nintendo DS – touch screen / thermometer for the blowing option.

(Can timers be sensors? If they can,)

15. Auto turning off system of my camera - timer

16. Sleeping function of my lap-top - timer

17. people(..?) – I sensed people, and they did also.

Eun Jung


Sunghun Kim ::February 8, 2008

1. Ipod touch sensor

2. Elevator Door Sensor - IR

3. subway card reader

4. Grocery Store Doors - IR/Motion detect

5. Bar code reader

6. ATM card reader

7. Bathroom: automatic toilets - IR

8. NYU library entrance's card reader

9. Library book barcode reader

10. Heating system - Thermo-sensor

11. Lights on streets. - Light/timer sensor

Sunghun

Daniel Imal :: Sensors between my bedroom and the subway :: February 11, 2008

  • Thermostat in heater
  • Thermometer on bedroom window
  • Motion sensor light I haven't installed on my balcony
  • Thermostat in soldering iron
  • Mobile phone: camera, microphone, rf receiver
  • Microphones
  • Toilet water level sensor (float mechanism)
  • Fridge thermostat
  • Stove thermostat
  • Outside of building
  • Security camera
  • Light sensors for building lights
  • Police surveillance camera on top of lightpost
  • Metrocard reader
  • Incoming train announcements must be informed by a proximity sensor

Aislinn Dewey :: Sensors noted on my trip to Boston by car from NYC :: February 11, 2008

  • Radar detector, hand-held gun used by police office on side of road
  • RFID sensor and scanner in fast lane going through toll booths
  • car windshield wiper sensor to detect speed of car and adjust wipers accordingly
  • light/photo sensor in street lights along highway
  • distance detection sensor on certain vehicles, such as trucks or luxury vehicles to detect distance when backing up

Steven Litt :: Sensors between my apartment and ITP :: February 11, 2007

1. Smoke detector

2. Carbon monoxide detector

3. Refrigerator thermostat

4. Remote control for TV, DVD player, and stereo

5. Sensor for person or object holding closing door open on subway

6. Door open sensor which signals sound when someone opens door

7. Automatic sliding door sensor (proximity sensor?) in front of grocery store

8. Anti theft sensors at entraces to various stores (RF? electromagnet?)

9. Credit card swiper

10. Proximity sensor which unleashes water from sink

11. Proximity sensor for hand dryer

12. Barcode reader

13. Digital scale

14. Thermostat

15. Sensor for person or object blocking door on elevator

Steve


meng li :: Sensor walk in National Museum of the American Indian :: February 11, 2008

inside the museum:

1 metal detector, when i'm going through the security door

2 chemical detector, when people pass through the door

3 scanner , when the bag is being passed through the bag check scanner

4 security guard, the most intelligent sensor when checking into the bag

5 surveillance camera

6 smoke detector on top of the ceiling

7 proximity sensor between the elevator door

8 monitor

9 credit card scanner in the museum store

10 touch screen, part of the exhibition

11 microphone, part of the exhibition


Seungran Woo :: Sensors between my bedroom and itp :: February 11, 2008

  1. Barcode Reader (Markets)
  2. Card Reader( bank ATM machine , Subwaycard)
  3. Fire alarm (gas/ heat sensors)
  4. IR seansor( Elevators, an automatic door)
  5. Motion sensor for detecting people (light)
  6. Touch sensor( machine on the screen like ATM )
  7. elevator door sensor

Spring 2007 Sensor Workshop Class


Sarah Grant :: 31 January 2007

1. Thermostat in my house

2. sensor for detecting when a car is waiting at a street light

3. touch screen in subway, for purchasing cards

4. subway card reader

5. sensor which sets off alarm when emergency door is opened in subway

6. subway door sensor, which prevents the doors from closing on somebody

7. sensor that tells you which subway stop is coming up next

8. sensor that tells you the current temperature, on the side of a building

9. ir sensor, triggering bell, when walking into a bodega

10. sensor for reading coins deposited into a pay phone

11. elevator door sensor

12. elevator weight sensor

13. ir sensor on itp floor

14. strip inside bus that let's you ring for the next bus stop. is this a sensor or just a button?

15. touch pad on ipod

16. sensor in my digicam, which orientates the picture either vertically or horizontally, depending on which way the camera is turned, when in review mode. it's kind of annoying, honestly.

Sarah


Sensor Walk in a Journey to Flushing :: Roger TSAI :: 31 January 2007

Sensors I found:

1. anti-pin window sensor

2. AC thermo sensor

3. distance sensor

4. raindrop sensor

5. anti spotlight sensor

6. weight sensor

please see the blog below:

http://rogersensorworkshop.blogspot.com/

Roger


Sensor Walk Assignment :: Roy Vanegas :: 31 January 2007

Coffee Maker
At ITP last night, I made coffee. I imagined Force-sensing resistors at work, but I was deathly wrong. Anyone know how a coffee maker knows when your coffee is ready, then beeps to notify you?
Lights
As I was waiting for the coffee to be done, I headed to the back office of ITP to shred some papers. The lights were off in the room, but my entry into the area turned them on. A motion sensor, perhaps employing IR or acoustics, sensed movement in its proximity, and trigged the lights.
Door
Later in the evening, I ended up at a store. Force-sensing resistors on both sides of the entry door's floor triggered the door to either stay open or stay closed.
iPod
On the train home, I put on my iPod and scrolled over to Markus Guentner. Similar to a trackpad on a laptop computer, the scroll wheel on an iPod probably employs some sort of touch sensor technology.
Digital Scale
Once I got home, I made some dressing for a salad, measuring the ingredients on a digital postal scale. Once again, I encountered a force-sensing resistor. This one generated analog values that were interpreted by a microcontroller as grams or ounces.
Laptop Computer
After dinner, I sat down at my desk to work. Under low light conditions, I turned on my computer, which sensed the lack of photons in the room, and thus, turned on the keyboard backlight and turned down the screen's brightness. Light sensors flanking the keyboard of my computer perceived low light in the room, and according to some pre-defined threshold, set off both the lighting system underneath my keyboard and the brightness of the screen.
Laptop Computer
As I continued to work on my computer, the CPU began to get hot, in turn triggering a fan. Just like all computers, a heat sensor inside my machine sensed when the processor became too hot, and launched the fan once a threshold had been crossed.

roy


For a normal day, I tried to find and think about the different sensors that I came across in New York. The list is typical, there are a lot of things I knew I would find. For each sensor I tried to think about the sensor component alone, what was the main piece of it, infrared or touch or something else?

Here’s the list

  1. Grocery Store Doors - automatic - motion/pressure sensor
  2. Elevator Door Sensor - IR / Breaking a beam
  3. Barcode Reader - initial identification of object held - IR?
  4. Hand / fingerprint scanner entry system - I know ITP has one in the stairwell, Dan O’ was seen using it once.
  5. Smoke detector - because I cook now -
    • these are typically Volatile ORganic Compound sensors. Figaro Sensor sells them for about $15 apiece, I think. tigoe
  6. Motion sensor for bathroom lights
    • PIR motion sensors. Fairly simple to use, they're typically a digital voltage output. tigoe
  7. iPod - scroll wheel senses touch, similarly, touchpads on laptops
    • Quantum sells a cheap version of this sensor called the QWheel. I have an evaluation kit of it, and sample code for Processing. tigoe
  8. Remote control for TV/DVD - IR?
    • Yep. Usually the data is carried on a 38kHz or 40kHz carrier wave. Rentron sells a few IR encoder/decoder pairs. tigoe
  9. MTA - card scanner, impolite door sensors
    • Card scanners are usually available on surplus sites like All Electronics. Robyn Overstreet, who graduated last year, had some good notes on them from when she took physical computing, and Inshan Khairullah has some sample code from his thesis tigoe
  10. Traffic Lights - do they really notice cars coming? Ambulances? How - light, sound, weight?
    • Typically a piezo cable in the road and/or a camera mounted by the stop light. If anyone sees a stoplight with a camera mounted on it, get a picture and put it up here. If there's a manufacturer's name on it, get that too. tigoe
  11. Security Alarm - motion / windows -
    • there are a number of ways this gets handled. Sometimes it's basically capacitive sensing like the Quantum Qprox sensors so popular at ITP. Other times it's a magnet switch (Radio Shack sells one of these for windows. Others? tigoe
  12. Street lights - timed or light sensors?
  13. Auto toilets / Auto sinks - IR
    • Like the Sharp GP series sensors. Link? tigoe

Here’s the list

  1. Grocery Store Doors - automatic - motion/pressure sensor
  2. Elevator Door Sensor - IR / Breaking a beam
  3. Barcode Reader - initial identification of object held - IR?
  4. Hand / fingerprint scanner entry system - I know ITP has one in the stairwell, Dan O’ was seen using it once.
  5. Smoke detector - because I cook now -
  6. Motion sensor for bathroom lights
  7. iPod - scroll wheel senses touch, similarly, touchpads on laptops
  8. Remote control for TV/DVD - IR?
  9. MTA - card scanner, impolite door sensors
  10. Traffic Lights - do they really notice cars coming? Ambulances? How - light, sound, weight?
  11. Security Alarm - motion / windows -
  12. Street lights - timed or light sensors?
  13. Auto toilets / Auto sinks - IR

js3646


September 13, 2005

Sensors During the Day

Subway station : magnetic sensor for metrocard, door sensor on subway doors

  • We need to find out more about the door sensors. tigoe

At ITP : elevator door sensor, camera in wooden mirror(?)

At work :

  • fingerprint verifier (touch sensor),
    • this is one I know next to nothing about, but would like to know more. tigoe
  • air conditioning (temperature sensor),
    • There are a number of temperature sensors and thermocouples available on the market, and they're all pretty easy to use. The DS1820 and related sensors from Dallas Semiconductor are widely popular for both environmental and medical sensing. Not all of them can sense less than 0.5 degrees C resolution, though. tigoe
  • wacom tablet (touch sensor), touchpad on powerbook

Grocery store :

  • automatic door (sensor under doormat),
    • see traffic notes in John's sensors above. Probably a force-sensing pad or piezo sensor tigoe
  • conveyor belt (sensor that stops the belt for the next customer),
    • I'm fascinated by these. The detector is realy clear to see, and it's so simple; basically a tightly focused IR LED or laser, and a photodiode. tigoe
  • barcode reader,
  • coupon distributor
    • can you go into detail here? I haven't seen one of these tigoe

Doctor's office : thermometer

  • another possible application of the Dallas temp sensors mentioned above tigoe

Bathroom: automatic toilets and sinks

  • Generally IR ranging sensors like the Sharp GP series tigoe

Grace


Sensor experience: a day of exploring sensors

  1. Alarm clock snooze button - while 'merely' a digital switch, it temporarily pauses the alarm for exactly 9 minutes.
  2. Touch-screen display - I used the touch-screen display of a self-service digital picture printing station. I believe the display is pressure-sensitive, with a thin membrane-type layer that rests atop the monitor, though it may be heat- or area-sensing (like a QProx).
    • Generally these are capacitive sensors. There's a good paper on this that Sasha Harris-Cronin found online linked in my resources blog. tigoe
  3. CD drive - the digital 'eye' of the drive passes under the surface of the CD scanning digital 1's and 0's converting that information to, say, images.
    • I think these operate on the same principle as a barcode scanner; basically a bi-directional laser diode. It'd be interesting to combine this application and barcode scanning in one project and see if they really are related tigoe
  4. Bar code scanner - I know the sensor is a bar code reader, emitting a series of red lasers recognizing the pattern of the 15 or so lined bar code, but I don't really know how it works.
  5. Credit card 'machine' - I call it a 'machine' because I don't actually know what it's called, but I'm referring to the fancy ones that you swipe your card in and then sign. There's a lot going on in there, what with the bar reader, the touch pad, and the 'pen' you sign your name with. I had one actually deny my signature when I 'signed' using a shape rather than my name. Thinking about sensors, I'd have to say this is an impressive little invention!
    • Same principle as a trackpad on a laptop or a wacom tablet, basically. Interlink, the company that makes FSRs that we talked about in class in week 2, also makes trackpads. Research into how a simple FSR becomes an X-Y trackpad, with examples, would make an excellent research project for someone. I have a sample kit of Interlink's trackpad. tigoe
  6. automatic door opener - this is motion sensing, as the sensor box rests obviously above the door.
  7. Laptop - while there must be dozens of sensors in my Apple-branded laptop, I notice 2 on a daily basis. The first is what I believe to be a mechanical sensor, 'knowing' when I open my laptop, awakening it from sleep and putting it to sleep when I close it. I think the sensor is built in to the hinge that clasps it closed.
  8. Laptop - The second sensor is a light sensor, hidden somewhere to the left of the keyboard. The contrast adjusts based upon the lighting conditions of the room my laptop is in. I know it to be to the left of the keyboard because when I place my hand over the left speaker, the contrast adjusts to accommodate a low-light setting.
    • interesting; my 12" powerbook doesn't have it. What model are you using?
    • also, here's a fun one in Powerbooks from after December 2004. They have an internal accelerometer that you can access via software. tigoe

  1. Elevator - this 'modern miracle' uses an IR sensor (I think) to recognize presence as the door closes.
  2. Okay. Here's something I just came across...

I apologize for it, but it is a real-world example of what's being done with sensors...

  1. Another example of bizarre things done with sensors...

mjh348


>the clock alarm
>my cell phone clock
>the barcode reader on my phone.... it has a function "scan text when it is bluest"
>the toilet stick trgger the ball in the tank
** good example not yet mentioned. There are a number of fluid level sensors on the market, but most toilets I have encountered have been a simple mechanical float. Has anyone encountered an electronic one? tigoe >the ticket reader machine on the bus......suck the MetroCard in when you put your card close enough
>the subway ticket slider reader
>the dial on my fan
>the light switch
>the fancy paper towel machine in the pub at Lower East Side....photocell sensor
>so does the auto-flush toilet and water tap there
>the mad driver on my block.....he horned me when I tried to across the street
** I doubt we can legally hack him. tigoe notes if you have problem understanding these things in English as ME :~

hhh214


As a rule, my experience of life has been a distracted, fluxist, multi-trajectoried event. Then I had a baby. Now I have a distracted, fluxist, multi-trajectoried experience of a distracted, fluxist, multi-trajectoried event. For those of you now rolling your eyes at the recognition of an approaching excuse, I gratefully accept the judgement. These past three weeks I have several times attempted to keep a log of the singular occurrences of sensors in the world as I encounter them, only to find my attention hopelessly wandering away.

So my list is partial in every sense, consisting of those sensors that I found in the few moments in my life when I was able to forcibly restrain my wandering thoughts.

1:00 AM working on the computer over Wifi.

Turn on the Ceiling Fans which use an IR signal for all controls.

5:50 AM. A hungry, crying baby wakes my wife and me, ten merciless minutes before the alarm would have gone off. I pick up the now-useless machine, simultaneously turning the unheard alarm off and lighting the electro luminescent face to see that it was indeed time to get out of bed. This meager effort is at once my first encounter of the day with a sensor – the microswitch buried within the device – and my first disarming of a sensor for the day – the unused alarm contact.

Stumbling through my routine, I turn the shower on, waiting for the water to heat up – which in our house means waiting for the thermostat on the boiler to sense that the water temperature in the tank has dropped as heat is drawn off into the cold water running through a radiator-like coil of tubing before passing, now heated, into the house’s hot water pipes. This generally takes five or more minutes.

In the mean time, I stumble on to my next task: filling the teapot and placing it on the stove to boil. The stovetop has an electrostatic lighter – a huge improvement over the pilot-lighted (or not-lit) version we had before. Accompanying the lighter mechanism is a thermocouple to sense when the fire has gone on an unplanned hiatus, at which point the starter is kicked into play once again.

As the fire is blowing hard and blowing out, I realize we forgot to turn out the ceiling fans last night and I move to do so then. The fans are controlled by one wall switch that, in order to simplify wiring and therefore installation, controls both fans with an IR signal. Odd that they wouldn’t use X-10, but what the heck.

With the flame on the stove now stable and the shower still heating up, I turn on NPR to listen to the news over the gentle hiss of the shower and sit on the couch in a stupor.

The whistle of the teapot wakes me up and I turn the burner off and pour the steaming water into the awaiting coffeepot. The clouds of steam falling over each other through the open bathroom door indicate that the shower is ready and I go on about my morning routine.

I look at my watch, a Citezen EcoDrive, Solar powered and, of course monitored.

Several minutes later, with my bag over my shoulder and armed with a cup of coffee, I leave the house to join my now impatient wife and push the stroller on our trip to the subway. The sun is fairly well risen now, but in a few short weeks we’ll be doing this to the light of the porch lamp. At the moment, however, the light sensor – a photo diode, I imagine – has done its job and turned the lamp off for the day.

We are nearly to the subway before I remember Tom’s comments about stoplights and cross walks. I look for unusual sensors but see none. Later, I find there may be more there than meets the eye NYC traffic control. Somewhere in the city, there really is a big control room…

Moving out of the house means encountering more sensors, so I’ll move to a list with comments (as everyone else seemingly had the sense to do in the first place).

Store:

Motion Sensors on the doors. The good ones are microwave sensors. I used a
version from Museum Technology Source that was great because you could hide
it behind plywood walls and it would still work great. It was also fairly
adjustable. Much too expensive, though.
Bar code scanner.

Subway:

Metrocard reader at turnstyle.

Bankstreet:

Great security gates that read my ID through my wallet – RFID, I assume.
There’re automatic gates operated by servos (very slick) and the proverbial
‘electric eye’ to check that you’ve cleared the area.
Baby Monitor. Has LEDs that give a visual indication of sound levels, just in
case ambient noise is too… noisy. Forgot to get a picture, though.

Subway:

Door sensors as I try to catch a train. Unfortunately, the conductor is faster with
the door than I am jumping in. I wait for the next one. It’s a 2 train and has the
subway position indicator… but Tom told us in class that the driver controls that.
A bit ridiculous.

ITP:

AV equipment in classroom. Projector controlled by remote.
Big brother is everywhere…

Bankstreet:

Back to make sure the baby is doing all right. I notice the light sensors on the bus stop illuminated signage.
Cel Phone. Damn thing is always talking to the local towers. I talk to my Dad as I walk down to the express station at 96th Street and Broadway and miraculously, it keeps the signal going to the right tower (and I don’t even interrupt it’s conversation).

Dr’s appointment, 34th Street

Fifth Avenue and 34th Street have what looks to be the fanciest street markers in the city. The signs appear to be internally lit and of course, have light sensors on them. Must be to help the tourists spend their money at the Empire State Building.
Elevator. It gets me to the right floor, so I can only assume there are magnet switches or something in there telling the elevator where it is.

rjm361


One day sensor experience

1. My mobile alarm clock

2. Elevator: buttons

3. Elevator door: motion sensor

4. Subway Metro card scanner

5. Natural sound project: N, Q, R, and W train at 34th Station. There are motion sensors in heavy green iron box.

6. Store security (warning) alarm system: To prevent for shop lift

7. Credit & ATM card reader

8. Security camera: Subway station and NY Chinatown Senior Citizen Center at Bayard St and Mulberry St. We are under surveillance.

ChangSoo


My personal sensor experience

  1. Morning: talking to my friends on skype. My web cam and mic are a kind of sensors
  2. Walking to ITP: Little girl has shoes that blink when she jumps around
  3. Returning books to library: my NYU ID is scanned at the entrance
  4. Car is pulling in: while parking a signal tells the driver how far she is from the next car
  5. Buying soap in a shop: barcode is checked with a sensor
  6. Leaving the shop: I'm checked if I tried to steal stuff
  7. Heater at NYU: Checks temperature and compares it with time in the year
  8. Post office: I send a package to Vienna, measuring the weight electronically
  9. Coffee machine: tells me my cup is full
  10. Subway: ticket
  11. Evening: Electric toothbrush: tells me when I was brushing too long

StefanieWuschitz


This is what I found in Office Max

  • Automatic Doors at entrance / exit (IR sensor?)
  • Theft sensors at entrance, to set off an alarm if anyone tries to take products out. (RFID?)
  • Security cameras
  • Burglar Alarm (not sure whether this was motion sensor, or what.\\ I didn't think they were going to tell me if I asked them!
  • Photocopier
  • Barcode reader at checkout
  • Fire alarm (knife switch)
  • Sensor on fire exit to set off alarm if anyone goes out (some kind of circuit break switch?)
  • Sprinker system (heat sensor)

Ed


SACK'S FIFTH AVENUE TRIP AND MORE

1. I leave ITP at 12.30 pm
Elevator Door and Buttons : IR / Breaking a beam

2. I take the subway at 8th Street to meet my cousins and babysit my 4 month old niece in SoHo
MTA : Card Scanner and Automated doors

3. Ipod.
Scroll Wheel : Quantum has similar sensor called the QWheel.

4. Walk to their house.
Buzzer and Electronic door : piezos and push buttons, I think.

5. Baby monitor in Ruby's room.
Many different models that sense sound, movement and sometimes even with video. Sound-activated lights add a second alert when your baby stirs and 49MHz frequency monitor with 450’ range.

6. Laptop touch pad and Skype.
Touch sensor, Camera and Microphone.

7. Refrigerator light switch.
Regular switch like the one showed in class.

8. Heating system.
Thermostat that starts the heating when room reaches a certain temperature.

9. Baby Mat.
Touch sensors and piezos or some really cheap technology for the baby to walk on things and make music, although she doesnt even walk on her fours yet.

10. I leave to go meet my mother who's in town for the week and re-take the subway this time at Spring and get off at Grand Central see steps 2 & 3.

11. Meet her at the hotel, elevator this time with sound (see step 1) and probably security camera.

12. I pick her up and we walk to see the exhibit outside the MoMa by Doug Aitken.
Except for great monitor and projection technology i dont think there are many sensors involved in this installation but I guess visuals are triggered on a time of the day basis. But most likely there are security cameras all around us.

13. We walk to Sack's.
Push buttons for people with disabilities to automatically open doors. We use manual revolving ones, my mother doesn't want to admit her age.

14. Elevator with sound (see step 1 & 11).

15. Anti-theft security tags on jeans. They are so tight that tag is digging into my thigh when i try them on. How about switching to something like RFIDs? I belive that these anti-theft tags are part of a system called Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) that includes Pedestals and accessories to remove tags.

16. Bar scanner : Photodiode, says Tom Igoe. The laser's pulsing light out, then reading back in the change in light level.

17. Credit card machine connected to landline not wireless.

18. Elevator again and we walk back to the hotel.

Benedetta Piantella


I took a typical Sunday for sensor adventure on Jan,28,2007

Metal Detector
Beeping when it catch any metallic object- Electromagnetic Induction
Deck next to the metal detector
by pushing switch, roller moves - just switch?
Auto Toilet
IR?
Electric Water Boiler
Heating elements
Barcode Reader
they use a laser beam as the light source and typically employ either a reciprocating mirror or
a rotating prism to scan the laser beam back and forth across the bar code. A photodiode is used to measure the intensity of the light reflected back from the bar code. The light emitted by the reader is tuned to a specific frequency and the photodiode is designed to detect only this same frequency light.
Rice cooker
switching between boiling mode to warming mode- microcessors with fuzzy logic, and timer
Light switch
toggle switch
Elevator Door Sensor
IR
Remote Transmitter
IR
Fan Heater
providing hot air and cool air in order - timer
NJ Transit
a.ticket reader- b.train door sensor-
Car Alarm
vibration or ultrasound , infrared
Cell Phone
a.key pad's light-IR? b.button sensor-also IR c.vibration-??

YounjiChoi


Monady night sensor walk

leave ITP

  1. elevator push button switch
  2. security camera in lobby
  3. traffic lights - switch
  4. ipod - click wheel - fancy switch & fsr
  5. subway card machine - touch screen, money reader?
  6. subway card reader - magnetic strip reader
  7. subway car - senses postion on route --> led display + speaker anoucements, switch
  8. store - scale
  9. store - barcode reader
  10. store - debit card magnetic reader + pin button, switches, conection to http or tcp/ip
  11. store - rfid anti theft
  12. cell phone - key pad, switches and transistors, connection w/ rf to network
  13. apartment building - buzzer/switch - calls up, opens door - magnetic lock

Raphael Zollinger


Sensor walk

Oh, I tried to walk somewhere exciting, but instead I walked to work. Actually, I walked to the subway and then to work. This is what I ran into:

Before I left the house: 1. detector in electric kettle to determine when water is boiling. Maybe just a thermometer? 2. light switches 3. switch in refrigerator 4. touch sensor and switches in my laptop 5. more switches in my cell phone 6. my pathetic failed eyes that were unable to locate my keys

On the way to work: 1. iPod—touch sensor and switches 2. magnetic card reader for subway 3. switches on my gameboy 4. magnetic card reader for my Starbucks gift card 5. RFID(?) sensor for card to get into my work building (the kind where you touch to a sensor, rather than swipe) 6. more touch sensors for the elevator functioning as non-moving switches 7. system for detecting what floor each elevator is on and indicating its position via lights

After work I walked to school, with detours for some window shopping 1. more of the same iPod sensors 2. electronic article survaillance systems to try to prevent shoplifting 3. magnetic card reader to enter the ATM section of the bank after hours 4. magnetic card reader and a variety of switches for the ATM 5. probably also a security camera

Observations: It seems like a lot of the complex sensors I encounter in daily life are for some variety of identification—verifying who I am, that I’m allowed to be there, that I’ve paid, identifying items so that they don’t leave stores unpaid, etc. Most day-to-day interactions that weren’t about establishing my identity or weren’t direct computing (such as using the computer or controlling the iPod) involved switches.

Daniel


Sensor walk

Youjeong's typical SensorWalk on Saturday

I live in Fort Lee, New Jersey near the George Washington Bridge. my commute to school in a typical day I come across many sensors. Especially when I drive to school and go shopping. Below are the sensors that I realized on Saturday (my typical Saturday)

My sensors:

1. E-Z pass: when I pass the tollgate, E-Z pass lane detects my E-Z PASS card that is on the front window of my car so that I can go across the G.W.B easily without wasting time in line. I think the EZ pass sensor is a type of IR sensor, maybe a motion sensor and maybe even barcode sensor.

2. Car remote control for garage door: Infrared sensor (remote control) I am not sure what it detects or how it does it but I press the button and my garage door opens.

3. Dishwasher: I think it has touch sensor. If I push button like microwave, it works orderly the way I want it to.

4. Water filter on refrigerator: when water filter run out of it, it changes color from green to red. (some kind of sensor here)

5. Thermo-sensor: it knows the temperature of my apartment and it automatically turns on and off to adjust room temperature.

6. ATM access entrance passing through bank card: maybe bar code type of sensor, I put my ATM card into the slot and it opens the door.

7. Grocery shop automate, when it sees that there is no grocery on the belt, the belt moves the grocery to the cashier. (motion sensor?)

8. Shopping Mall in Edge Water: security tag on clothe. It beeps if you try to leave without paying for it.

Youjeong Paik


Sensor walk

  1. Morning at home and evening at the Museum of the Moving Image

http://itp.nyu.edu/~mfm317/itp/sensor_workshop/

Maria


Sensor Walk

sensors around me~.

1. laptop MacBook Pro : a machine with bunch of sensors~!!

   track pad : detect one or two fingers and direction of movement
   screen saver : active or not
   keyboard : illuminate keyboard in low light conditions (photocell?)
   sleeping function : when close the active laptop, it turns to sleeping mode. 
   sudden motion sensor.

2. thermostat in my room : turn on and off depends on the temperature of my room

3. grocery store door : opens door automatically when people are in front of it. IR distance

4. grocery store bar code reader : detect a bar code and price

5. security system near doors of large stores : it detect unpaid goods.

6. auto tap : IR sensor, when you put your hands below the tap, water comes out.

7. hand dryer : IR sensor, turn on when you put your hands below the machine.

8. ATM center door's card reader : detect their customers.

9. NYU library entrance's card reader : detect NYU students & faculty.

10. printer : detect whether there's paper or not~. I don't know how it works.

SoYoung


I had to do a similar observation to sensor walk for another class. So this time instead of a typical day i chose to observe on the day i went to Windham Mountain for a day of snowboarding.

 1.Ipod on the bus- has touch sensor
 2.Automatic slide door -IR
 3.Touch screen display for rental equipment selection -
 4.magnetic card reader at the cashier
 5.lift ticket scanner
 6.in the restroom, auto sink and hand dryer- IR
 7.LED display of temperature- temp. sensor 
 8.Ryan's "smart" jacket- soft sensing buttons
 9.cellphone- mic and camera
 10.key to front door-RFID
 11.playstation controller- accelerometer and gyroscopic sensor
 12.remoter controller-IR

Evrim


As a joint adventure for Sensor Workshop and Thesis, I took a trip to a very large musical instrument store to see which sensors are used in instruments. I was pretty let down by the lack of diversity of sensors in musical instruments (which might explain the necessity for conferences/classes like NIME!).

  1. Potentiometers- There are so many potentiometers in a music store. I must have walked past 5000 or so (both linear and rotary). Every guitar/bass has two, amplifiers have at least 4, mixing boards have hundreds, dj mixers have 10+, and so on. I noticed the "notched" and "sprung" pots we talked about in class last week.
  2. Switches- From guitar pedals to weighted electronic keyboards, everything in the store (save acoustic instruments) have switches.
  3. Force Sensing Resistors- There are FSRs in many high end electronic instruments like drum kits and keyboards with weighted keys. The FSRs are used to control a sound's 'attack' (and volume).
  4. Magnetic Guitar/Bass Pickups- I wonder how many miles of magnet wire are in a given instrument store? These sensors (transducers) translate the kinetic energy of vibrating strings into an electric signal. (Has anyone ever seen optical pickups? Supposedly they have a much flatter frequency response.)
  5. Touch Screen- A number of instruments have touch-sensitive screens used for controlling the menu of the instrument. I'm assuming this works with IR and refection.
  6. Microphones- Another common transducer. I saw many kinds of mics - condenser, piezo, dynamic. These translate changes in air pressure into an electric signal.
  7. Digital Rotary Encoder- On fake record players designed for scratching with samples(just the platter, no needle), these encoders allow continuous 360-degree motion in either direction.
  8. Record Player Needle- I could be going out on a limb here, but I think styli are sensors, detecting the groves in a record.

chris


Sleep function on TV - turns off TV after alloted time

Electric tea kettle - light turns on when it begins to heat water, and lever flips up when done

The obvious elevator button

Metrocard swipe to enter subway

Lights on location map notifying passengers which stop their at on the train - is this a sensor?

Subway doors automatically open

Walked down to Digital Society to buy some cds - sensor on the door - had to press button to enter, and chime sound rang as I entered.

Cashier used RFID scanner to ring up my purchase.

Cashier swipes credit card

Made a phone call on my cell - each key has a sensor as dial

rucyl


Sensor Walk on typical day

 1. iPod: touch sensor for wheel
 2. Laptop Computer: touch sensor for touch pad, fingerprint verifier (IBM) for login
 3. Subway: magnetic sensor for reading subway card
 4. Elevator: IR sensor for detecting space is clear
 5. Kitchen: fume detector - for fire alarm
 6. ATM: card reader
 7. Library: ID scanning at an entrance and a print station
 8. Cell phone: vibrating sensor for slient mode
 9. Electric rice cooker: ? - changing from boiling mode to warming mode
 10. Refrigerator: thermosensor - keep temperature

younghyun


Sensors I found around me:

Home:

1. Wall-mount type gas detector - Figaro Gas Sensor

2. Computer - Optical Mouse (The mouse has a small, red light-emitting diode (LED) that bounces light off that surface onto a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor, which records the image.)

3. Auto light in front of the apartment- IR sensor //PIR-passive infrared

4. Solar calculator - solar sensor

5. Swing doll toy (when it detects sound, it will swing the body)- sonic sensor

traffic:

1. Car - parking sensor with back up alarms -IR sensor

shopping:

1. Automatic Doors - motion sensor

2. credit card reader

3. Barcode scanner - linear sensor(http://www.denso-wave.com/en/adcd/fundamental/page5.html)

shin-yi?

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