Miniaturized Pervasive Sensors for Indoor Health Monitoring in Smart Cities

Abstract

Sensors and electronics technologies are pivotal in several fields of science and engineering, especially in automation, industry and environment monitoring. Over the years, there have been continuous changes and advancements in design and miniaturization of sensors with the growth of their application areas. Challenges have arisen in the deployment, fabrication and calibration of modern sensors. Therefore, although the usage of sensors has greatly helped improving the quality of life, especially through their employment in many IoT (Internet of Things) applications, some threats and safety issues still remain unaddressed. In this paper, a brief review focusing on pervasive sensors used for health and indoor environment monitoring is given. Examples of technology advancements in air, water and radioactivity are discussed. This bird’s eye view suggests that solid-state pervasive sensors have become essential parts of all emerging applications related to monitoring of health and safety. Miniaturization, in combination with gamification approaches and machine learning techniques for processing large amounts of captured data, can successfully address and solve many issues of massive deployment. The development paradigm of Smart Cities should include both indoor and outdoor scenarios.