A lab in a top secret facility in Baltimore, USA, is analysing a new nerve gas. A sample is currently spinning above an electrosonic accelerating piston inside a super-secure glass chamber.
The lab has a gas sensor just in case the special chamber's glass casing breaks.
It's pretty dumb. It just collects and sends analogue data to the computer.
Computers have a problem with this - they only understand digital data. So, an analog-to-digital converter is required - see the red box.
What would happen if the glass broke? Let's find out!
So how does this work?
How does the computer know that the data coming from the sensor, after being converted to digital, represents a dangerous situation?
And why is a computer necessary! Only a tiny piece of data is being processed, not much memory is required.
Find some software to annote this worksheet. It is a .pdf file.
Submit your solution as instructed.
Other common sensors include:
Note, analogue and digital signals are quite different:
Common scenario 1
An automatic door is closed. Analogue data sent by a motion sensor is converted to digital data by an ADC and processed by a microprocessor.
The digital data received by the microprocessor is compared to a stored value and the result is that nothing happens.
You walk towards the door. The microprocessor is still receiving data and making comparisons with stored data. The data recived is now greater than the stored value and the microprocessor sends a signal to an actuator - a kind of motor - to open the door.