Basic Principles of a Sensor Network

A Sensor Network is made up of a number of sensor components that provide an output when they detect something, such as movement or a person falling.

The major elements are obviously the sensors. Many kinds of sensors can be used in a home care environment. Most of these which Dundee are using are 'off the shelf' items that are readily available. Using commercially available equipment instead of creating devices from scratch keeps overall development costs down, which is an important factor.

MATCH is using a number of sensor devices supplied by Tunstall Group Limited, who are one of the industry partners involved in the project. Tunstall is the world's largest manufacturer and provider of home assurance technologies, and offers substantial technical experience to MATCH.

The second most important element of the system is known as a Data Acquisition Block. This is a small electronic device with multiple input and output connections mounted along its sides. The Data Acquisition Block can be further extended by using connector blocks that allow other signals to be fed into it from sensors.

The data blocks send the sensor data to a database for later analysis.