A sentroller, used in the

Internet of things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

is a sensor, controller or

actuator An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover". An actuator requires a control device (controlled by control signal) a ...

or combination of these three.

Sentrollers in the Internet of things

The current Internet is an Internet of people, based on people communicating with people, using

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s, tablets, laptops and computers, but this is changing: equipment and devices connected to the Internet (e.g.

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of si ...

es,

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

s) are starting to shift the balance away from people towards things. The future is clearly moving into a direction where the number of things connected to the Internet will overwhelm the number of connected people. Predictions range up to a factor of 100 to 1 or more, and thus the Internet of people will transform into the Internet of things. Thereby, the Internet of things will connect to and communicate directly with other "things", rather than directly with people. Many of the new things connected to the Internet will be sentrollers, which means they are either actuators, sensors, controllers, or combinations of these three things. One simple example is a home thermostat. A thermostat is a sentroller as it senses the temperature in the home, checks whether the home or room in which the thermostat is monitoring temperature is at the desired temperature, and if not, turns on the

heater Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...

or the

air conditioner Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. Therefore, a thermostat is a sensor and a controller – a sentroller. No human interaction with the thermostat or the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

will be necessary for the thermostat to keep the heat in the home at the right level. In practice, sentrollers absorb and/or produce very limited amounts of information, but connectivity to the internet is essential for their operation. The Internet of things will host the applications that know how to interpret the information provided by sentrollers and what action to be taken. The smarts of the

smart home Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...

, smart energy, smart buildings, etc. actually reside in the cloud. The sentrollers are the end nodes that will become the majority population of this type of Internet of things.

References

{{Reflist
Smart Home Digest
What is a Sentroller
Electronic Design
Sentrollers in the Internet of Things
ECN Magazine
ZigBee opens up the Sentroller market for Smart Home device developers
HomeToys Magazine
After Big Data, it is now Small Data’s turn to change our world
DesignWorld
Designing with ZigBee - 3 things you need to know
Senors Online
The Rise of Sentrollers
Braingrid Corporation's Sentroller

External links

ZigBee Alliance

GreenPeak official website
Sensors Home automation Wireless sensor network

Sentrollers in the Internet of things

See also

References

External links