What are intelligent sensors, and Why should I care about them?

Intelligent sensors are a new class of electronic sensing device that is revolutionizing the way data is gathered from around the world, useful information from the data is extracted, and the newfound information performs different kinds of operations faster and more accurately, safely, and less expensively than ever before. One can leverage the power of individual intelligent sensors by communicating their information to other intelligent sensors or to other systems, allowing one to accomplish tasks that weren't possible before and creating incredible advancements in a wide variety of applications. The three characteristics that are mandatory for an intelligent sensor are: the sensing element that measures one or more physical parameters, a computational element that analyzes the measurements made by the sensing element, and a communication interface to the outside world that allows the device to exchange information with other components in a larger system. Three examples of intelligent sensors in the real world are: multichannel digital temperature sensor, flow sensors, and steer-by-wire steering-position sensor. Two of these three sensors have come from the industrial process-control market and one from the vehicular-control market.