Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2022 - Sensor-21

leads to decreased efficacy because of
reduced deposition of medication in
the lungs, which in turn leads to increased
disease severity. The solution of
guiding the patient and providing direct
feedback, as well as supporting the
patient in controlling the disease and
increasing adherence, have already
been shown to improve patient outcomes
by
currently used connected
drug delivery devices.
The high percentage of patients suffering
from asthma or COPD and misusing
their inhaler, when a life free of complaints
would generally be possible with
proper disease management, will continue
to drive innovation for connected drug
delivery. Supporting the patient with the
optimal treatment of their disease, not
solely as a simple medical tool but as a
companion device to remind, coach, and
provide relevant insight into the treatment
and the course of the disease, is the direction
in which the industry is advancing.
Reference
1. S. Sullivan, " The burden of uncontrolled asthma
on the US health care system, " Managed Care,
vol. 14, no. 8, pp. 4-7, 2005.
This article was written by Dr. Andreas Alt,
PhD, Sales Director Medical at Sensirion AG.
For more information, contact Dr. Alt at:
info@sensirion.com or visit http://info.
hotims.com/82322-164.
Edge Processing with Embedded Artificial Intelligence
W
e are currently moving into the
next automation age. It is a world
where your personal devices will help
you track your health in real time, while
conveniently connecting with your doctor.
It is a world with fully autonomous
electric cars connected to other vehicles
and road infrastructure to optimize
driving and safety. It is a world where
connected, smart industrial machinery,
equipped with sensors, plan their own
maintenance, while improving performance
and efficiency. It is a world where
the distinction between being online or
offline blurs as our devices track what is
happening in both realms.
Cyber Physical Systems
There is a common system architecture
in all these applications - Cyber
Physical Systems (CPS). A CPS collects
data, sends it raw or pre-processed to
the Cyber Cognitive Domain (the
cloud), where it is manipulated to extract
information and make decisions.
The elaborated result is sent back to
real-world
physical systems - the
Physical Domain - to guide appropriate
actions.
Object Information Domain
Data acquisition, pre-processing, and
communications are performed in what
is called the Object Information
Domain.
The Object Information Domain interfaces
with the Physical Domain
through nodes consisting of:
* Sensors to acquire meaningful, quantitative
information from the physical
domain.
* Processors to perform computations
on acquired data and make some
analysis.
Sensor Technology, June 2022
Figure 1. We are currently moving into the next automation age, where the distinction between
being online or offline blurs. (Image: STMicroelectronics)
* Communication to route the computed
results to different information
channels.
* Actuators to act on the Physical
Domain.
The information computed in the
Object Domain is typically transmitted
via complex network topologies to the
Cyber Domain.
To overcome potential latency in this
system, we can improve communication
technologies and employ edge processing
at the sensor node or in the sensors
themselves, leaving only the most complex
processing for the Cyber Cognitive
Domain.
Cloud Data Centers might seem the
best place to store, manage, and process
data, given the availability of the high
processing and memory capabilities required
by advanced artificial intelligence
(AI) algorithms. However, the
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dramatic increase in the number of
embedded sensors is already causing an
associated data explosion. Data Centers
will need to store petabytes of information
every day and related energy consumption
could increase from 200 - 300
terawatts/hr in 2020 and up to 1000
terawatts/hr in 2030.
We can reduce this burden on cloud
data centers by adding more intelligence
and processing capabilities into
devices in the Object Information
Domain to process more data locally
rather than in the cloud, maximizing
the exploitation of resources present in
the CPS. This would help minimize overall
energy consumption while local processing,
decision, and action reduces the
bandwidth required for data transfer to
the Cloud. It would also reduce overall
system latency and protect the integrity
and confidentiality of local data.
21
Intelligent Sensing: Enabling the Next " Automatic Age " - Marco Cassis
ST Applications 0622_1.indd 21
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ToC
5/18/22 2:14 PM

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Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2022

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