Wireless Sensors Enterprise Led Network

Key Applications

There will be many applications for sensors where space, flexibility, cost or mobility will dictate that the sensors be wireless. The field is broad and varied with the following being some of the key areas (not prioritised, not exhaustive):
* Utility Meter Reading
* Automotive - sensors for engine control, driving assistance and comfort control.
* Environmental monitoring - Environmental sensors for pollution monitoring.
* Healthcare - medical sensors for monitoring vital signs of a patient, for remote diagnosis and for automatic dispensing/delivery of drugs
* Industrial installations are turning to wireless sensor network as opposed to wired networks because installation costs are less and flexibility is greater.
* Food quality sensors for monitoring transport and storage conditions. 
* Personal fitness sensors to monitor heart rate etc. during exercise.
* Building Automation - Building management system sensors for lighting control, air-conditioning control and security.
* Early detection of chemo/bio hazards & threats
The key applications may be classified according to the dominant characteristic, e.g.:
* Low Cost: Suggest this be driven by the margin sensitive automotive sector;
* Wireless and Battery-less systems - Consider RFID Technology, potentially in the food and pharma sectors;
* Ad-hoc robust networks - Self forming networks capable of forming for defined durations.

The killer application is the billion dollar question - in the USA, military considerations are likely to dominate for the foreseeable future (chemo/bio threat detection, people/object sensing etc.; in Europe, domestic/service products may have a higher profile; sensors in the home, in cars, in the environment, food industry (quality tracking), wearables, fisheries. Wireless in the medical and healthcare environments is a key area.