Smart Sensor Tag in the Internet of Things

Wiliot, the Sensing as a Service company and Internet of Things (IoT) technology leader, announced it had received US $200 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

With this investment backing, Wiliot will further its mission to create a new era of IoT where intelligence and connectivity are brought to trillions of products that move through global supply chains, and develop ways to gather data in manufacturing and logistics using battery-free, stamp-sized sensor tags.

In the future IoT world, where IoT systems permeate all aspects of life, the demand for IoT sensors is ever-expanding.

What are the different types of sensors in IoT?
Sensors are ubiquitous and an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT), coming in many shapes and sizes for a great number of applications and use cases. Here are some of the most popular types of IoT sensors:

Temperature Sensor: measure the amount of heat energy in a source to detect temperature changes and convert these changes to data, used for manufacturing, agriculture, etc.

Humidity Sensor: measure the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere of air or other gases. Such as the HVAC systems in industrial and residential venues.

Pressure Sensor: sense changes in gases and liquids and communicates the changed data to connected systems. Common uses are leak testing, fluctuations, or drops in pressure.

Proximity Sensor: used for non-contact detection of objects, emitting electromagnetic fields or beams of radiation such as infrared. Widely used in smart retail, parking lots, and assembly lines.

Level Sensor: detect the level of substances including liquids, powders and granular materials. Common use cases include oil manufacturing, water treatment and beverage and food manufacturing factories.

Accelerometers: detect an object’s acceleration and the gravity changes. Accelerometers can be used for smart pedometers, driving fleets monitoring, anti-theft system, and much more.

Infrared Sensor: sense characteristics in their surroundings by either emitting or detecting infrared radiation, and measure the heat emitted by objects. Television remote control is the most common use case of the infrared sensor, also, art identification can leverage these sensors.

Optical Sensors: convert rays of light into electrical signals. Driverless cars can use optical sensors for recognizing signs, obstacles, and other things when driving or parking. They can also be used for breath analysis and heart-rate monitors in the biomedical field.

How can sensor tags contribute to the IoT industry?
The Internet of Things, makes every object connect to the Internet as well as interconnecting each other, and sensors are one key factor to realize IoT and make it a success. In other words, the Internet of Things couldn’t exist without smart sensors.

Smart sensor tags convert the real-world variable into a digital data stream for transmission to a gateway, then upload to the Cloud. The main contributions include three aspects, and the first one is allowing real-time visibility. They enable greater visibility into existing processes and workflows, identifying items, locating them and determining their environmental conditions.

The second one is to improve the process by being integrated into products or the products themselves. Sensor tags can monitor, control and improve operations in manufacturing or track the delivered products in logistics.

The last one is scalable for wider and more effective use cases based on their lower cost and more advanced capabilities. As the cost of sensor tags has dropped greatly, more IoT applications, connectivity options and deployments can be considerable and accessible.

What kind of sensor tags does Minew have?
As a leading wireless products manufacturer and innovator, Minew carries out its commitment to internet every object by focusing on the development and innovation of IoT sensor tags. Currently, our sensor tags mainly involve temperature and humidity sensor tags, magnetic sensor tags, light sensor tags, and accelerometers.

S1 T&H Sensor: A temperature and humidity sensor based on BLE5.0, with up to 3 years lifetime and about 200 history records. Used for temperature and humidity monitoring in the cold chain, warehouse & storage, greenhouse, etc.

S3 T&H Sensor: A high-precision digital thermohygrometer with BLE5.0, allowing data visibility on the e-ink screen. With up to 2,000 data records, providing service in real-time temperature & humidity monitoring in the warehouse, agriculture, cold chain logistic, and other vertical industries.

S4 Door Sensor: With a built-in magnetic sensor, S4 can remotely monitor the opening situation of the door, window, drawer, etc. S4 is widely used in private houses or museums for anti-thief.

E8S Asset Tag: E8S is an accelerometer produced by Minew, enabling asset and inventory tracking and management in various venues and industries.

S2 Light Sensor: S2 can detect ambient light. It is assembled by ultrasonic technology for stability and is mainly used for asset management & tracking in museums, warehouses, and other industries.

Wireless sensor tags can help build up the IoT ecosystem in different industries and venues, Minew-enabled products can sense temperature, motion, location changes, humidity, and proximity. By being integrated with the Cloud Platform developed by software partners, Minew’s sensors bring real-time transparency, to provide consumers with increased convenience, fresher, safer food, less waste, lower medical costs, and a lower environmental impact.

What is the future of wireless sensor tags? Maybe more future-proof insights and services will be coming.

About Wiliot
Wiliot is a Sensing as a Service company whose cloud platform connects the digital and physical worlds using its IoT Pixel tagging technology, computers the size of a postage stamp that power themselves in revolutionary ways. Our vision is to expand the Internet of things to include everyday products, adding intelligence to plastic crates, pharmaceuticals, packaging, clothes, and other products, connecting them to the internet, changing the way things are made, distributed, sold, used, reused, and recycled. www.wiliot.com

About Minew
Minew is an industrial-leading provider and manufacturer of wireless products and services, with more than 13 years’ experiences on production, R&D and innovation in IoT industry. Carrying with the vision of bringing physical and digital world together, Minew commits to connecting the world with our wireless products and technologies including but not limited to BLE, RTLS，RFID, GPS, UWB, LTE Cat-M1, NB-IoT. With a group of experienced and efficient R&D staff, well-coordinated workers in the production lines, Minew are ready to design and manufacture to customers exact specifications for OEM/ODM commitments.