Lord of the Flies Character Monolgues Essay

Jack’s monologue Oh god, what have I done? Simon, Piggy, it’s entirely my fault. I can’t express what I feel, the pain, it’s overmastering and mind numbing. Ralph if only you could understand the grief that I am going through, in-fact maybe you do? Maybe you’re hurting far more than me. Their deaths will get engraved in my conscience until the day I die. I would do anything Ralph, anything to get your forgiveness. At the moment I don’t think you can bare to look at me, I can barely look at myself. I mean how can I? I’m a murderer. Only if I had the courage to say all this to you, I know the old me would have. No-one will understand the desire and hunger I felt hunt, it was pure exhilaration. I guess that is when things began to get out of hand. My mind became warped by the desire to kill, spill blood and maim. It was over-powering I tried to control it but the day Simon died I let out all my rage. It felt good. Jealousy played its part as well; jealousy of you being leader and you liking Piggy more than me. Piggy was the easiest person to bully he was so vulnerable yet you Ralph kept sticking up for him. This made me even angrier towards him. I will pay for my sins by going to jail when I return to England but the pain in my head is nothing compared to jail. What more can I say? Only that I’m sorry†¦ Ralph’s monologue I can’t even begin the express the feeling of loss I have for both Simon and Piggy. They were my friends and they lost their lives trying to keep order. I hate Jack and I wish every day that it was he who had perished on the island and not Piggy or Simon. I suppose that I am to blame as well. Only if I had stopped Jack earlier none of this would have happened. The mere fact that I was once friends with Jack makes me sick. The flashbacks of that awful dance and Piggy tumbling off that cliff regularly haunt me. I can’t get them out of my head, maybe that’s a good thing because it means I will never forget their deaths or who caused them. The thought of Jack disgusts me, I cannot lay eyes on him for he is a murderer, a murderer who ruthlessly used his power to kill my friends. Eternity in jail is not enough for Jack, how can it be? Someone who has taken the life of another person unlawfully does not deserve the right to live. I shall write a book about my experience so that no one else has any indecisiveness about what to do in that situation. Thank God that most of the littluns are safe, I suppose they weren’t a big enough trophy for Jack to conquer. Roger has to pay as well, although Jack controlled the actions of his tribe I was always uneasy with Roger because I felt that if Jack was not there, Roger would be the one to lead their tribe. Now I hope that Piggy and Simon are living happily in heaven and when Jack dies, there is only one place he should go†¦ Roger’s monologue I shall blame Jack for killing Simon and Piggy. In court I will say that he forced me to dislodge the boulder and kill Piggy. Hahaha no one will know that it was my full intention to kill. I will play for the sympathy vote in court and put on my best act so that it is Jack who gets sent down, not me. I feel like I missed out, I could’ve tortured so many more people during my stay on the island. Oh well now its back to civilisation and rules and laws. How boring! I long for a chance to do everything again but this time I would make myself chief. I wonder what has happened to the beast. Maybe it will haunt that island forever. Now I am free because there isn’t any beastie where I live, hehe. I can do what I like. Ralph seemed a good leader at first but he was too preoccupied with the ‘fire’ and rescue. Jack was a better leader but he never fully got to that stage of really wanting to cause pain to theto the other children on the island. Instead it was always hunting with him. He wasn’t able to see that I was bored hunting pigs. I wanted to hunt littluns. Samneric’s monologue We were scared of Jack, really really scared. We hope that Ralph doesn’t think that we betrayed him. We couldn’t help it Jack forced us to join him, he said that if we didn’t he would torture us. Roger also kept making threats to us and eventually it slipped out that you were hiding nearby. Our time in Jack’s tribe was really quite boring and scary. At all times we were frightened that if we did anything wrong, Jack or Roger would hurt us. Almost all of the boys felt that way, we only did what Jack told us to do because we were scared of him, there wasn’t any other reason. Poor Piggy, he was really dear to us and we miss him loads. We should’ve pushed Roger of from the cliff in retaliation but we were too stunned at the time. The shameful nature of our actions when were with Jack cannot be excused, especially the night Simon died. We didn’t leave early that night like we had told Ralph and Piggy but we saw and took part in the dance albeit on the outside. That island made fools out of us, we hope to never return their again. Looking back it is hard to see how things turned out so bad. Probably the main reason things got out of hand was Jack’s need for leadership. Many a time we saw that Jack hated following the orders of someone else. We will try to forget this solemn event in our lives†¦ Evidence for the religious perspective: Evil within man , island= eden, forget previous life, lack of moral/spiritual guidance caused sin+ destruction, created a primitive tribe religion, only god can save 1) evil with man–> golding believes this otherwise why make the character of Simon?(he is the one who says the beast is themselves) 2) eden, hmm not always, described as scar, other island has jagged rocks etc, but simon’s hideaway eden like, fruit is mentioned a LOT. 3) god does not save, simon fails, message that Golding is saying we cannot use God as an excuse for this, we must change this ourselves 4) much evidence for lack of moral guidance, no parent to give this, children think it is ok to torture each other + all the other horrible acts committed on the island 5) jack creates a ‘rival’ religion to Ralph’s one, boys like jack’s more due to the ancestral desire for meat, hunting. Ironically, there is a sort of ‘order’ in Jack’s religion because every1 is so scared of doing anything wrong, they don’t do anything. This works against them when they are ordered to kill, etc The legal angle, Cannot be held wholly responsible due to age, did they understand right from wrong?, premeditated? 1) well, ofc they cannot be held wholly responsible, they were only 12 years old 2) they could be because certainly Roger knew right from wrong, yet still he chose wrong, jack on the other hand was blinded by his passion for hunting 3) some actions were premeditated, the trap thought of by Jack at their new hideout 4) he sed that they cud use it to kill any1 who comes 5) simon’s death was not really premeditated, the boys got swept up in a mad deep passion which caused them to kill him 6) Roger+Jack however can be convicted of Piggy’s death, not of simon’s if some1 sed that they shud be convicted of simons death then all of the boys including Ralph+Piggy wud be convicted because of the first death caused by the huge fire, hmm maybe Piggy exempt+ littluns, rest convicted The moral view–>similar to psychiatrists view and parts of religious view. The other children slowly absorb Jack’s views because he is the head of that particular family, jack however turned nasty due to a return to primeval instincts. Cruelty flourishes in conditions where there is much fear, lack of parental guidance, feeling of nothing to lose , despair Hard to see if Jack felt despair, but certainly Ralph and Piggy do, instead they do not give up hope–> golding says ‘capacity for selflessness and love’ this is shown by Piggy (towards littluns + Ralph (when he helps the crying one talk bout beastie)) Simon shows love towards all of nature, but he is not understood by others and is called ‘batty’. Again lack of parental guidance to tell them right from wrong†¦+ children not on island are ‘going wrong’ so imagine the difficulty for children on an island†¦ Humanist view: Fear- no one escapes fear, shown by the ‘beast’ not including simon (he is afraid of speaking out) Tyranny,- Jack becomes a servant of his own thirst for blood,he does not rule himself, the hunger does, gets power and the situation becomes worse, breaks away from Ralph

An African American Fight for Respect Essay

For thousands of years women have been fighting for many things, one of the most important being respect. Some people may think respect for a woman is simply holding the door for her as she walks through, pulling her chair out for her before she is seated, or maybe just standing when she leaves the table; but respect is so much more than that. Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. Respect is a feeling that cannot just be given to someone, it is a feeling that must be earned, fought for, or rewarded. For the African American woman, respect did not come by so easily no matter how hard they fought or even if they earned it. Examples of the African American woman fighting for her respect, has once upon a time been one of the many themes during all literary periods. The two works that I chose have the similar theme of respect. The literary pieces are â€Å"Sweat† by Zora Neale Hurston and â€Å"The Color Purple† by Alice Walker. These two works show the same theme of respect for black women and the struggle for it from men. Though both stories have comparisons that could go on for days, they just as well have their differences by the way the handle the theme of respect. Alice Walker has been writing stories and poetry for many years. As a graduate of Spelman College she was given great opportunities and was given a solid education. Women’s rights and respect has always been two topics close to Alice’s heart. It has been said, that â€Å"Alice Walker expresses the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. † Her writings also lean more towards the roles of black women through culture and history. On March 3, 2008 Alice Walker was arrested on International Women’s Day for crossing the police line at a rally in front of The White House. Walker has set a standard and has never had any need or want to change it. Of the many stories that Alice Walker has written, the one that stands out the most to me dealing with the female struggle for respect is the story made movie and musical, â€Å"The Color Purple. † â€Å"The Color Purple,† is a story written in 1982 that has won multiple awards and recognitions for its not so classy taste and realistic views. Some of these awards being from the Blue Ribbon Awards, Black Movie Awards, Golden Globe Awards, eleven nominations during the Oscars, and plenty more. The main characters in â€Å"The Color Purple,† are Celie Harris Johnson and Mister Albert Johnson. Celie has been abused since she was just a young girl; she had two children by her father Leonard and she is forced to marry Albert, a young widower, by the age of fourteen. During her years of being married to Albert, she is taunted, disrespected, beaten, and abused up until she turns her life around when she meets Shug Avery, a well-known Jazz singer, who comes to live with the couple. Shug takes it upon herself to help Celie raise her self-confidence so she can not only stand up to her husband and demand respect, but to feel beautiful about herself inside and out. By the end of the story, Celie stands up to Avery and is finally reconnected with the family that was once taken away from her. Another great black female author who proudly carries the theme of respect in her stories is Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston, a graduate of Howard University, was a well-known author during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston is most known for her famous literary piece entitled, â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God† which caught the eyes of readers around the world. Like Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston has also won multiple awards for her fabulous novels, short stories, and poems. The story â€Å"Sweat† written by Zora Neale Hurston takes place in a small all black town located near Orlando, Florida. This story, like many others with disrespect towards the wife, starts off with husband Sykes taunting his wife Delia by tricking her into thinking that the whip he throws over her shoulders is a snake, knowing she is deadly terrified of them. Throughout the story, Delia deals with infidelity, abuse, rumors, and taunting from her husband. Towards the end of the story, her husband buys a rattlesnake and refuses to take it back where he found it from, knowing his wife is terrified. In the end, that very snake gets loose, bites, and kills him; Delia stands their watching him die. The website articlemyriad. com states â€Å"The reader can speculate on whether or not Delia was too afraid to move to get help for her husband, but it is the general consensus that she purposefully let him die. While you could argue both, if you are going to contend that she was just afraid, you’d better take a closer look at the text before trying to defend your point. † One of the greatest comparisons in this story is the lack of respect the husbands have for their wives, a marriage is supposed to be filled with trust, respect, love, and honesty, all of which the two marriages in â€Å"The Color Purple† and â€Å"Sweat† lacked. Although there are many comparisons, there were also contrasts in the two stories, although not exactly easy to find with a closed mind. A contrast in these two stories to me that stood out the most were the personalities of the two wives in the stories. In â€Å"The Color Purple,† Celie is abused and taken advantage of, but holds a quiet tongue until the end; Delia in â€Å"Sweat† is abused and taken advantage of , but she always speaks her mind and portrays her true feelings towards something. With these two stories I felt it was good to have the personalities of the women who wanted respect to be completely different so that I could compare and contrast just a bit more clearly. One was more hidden and kept feelings to herself, the other more outgoing and stronger like all women should be. In conclusion, respect for women, especially blacks, has been a subject that will always be discussed and fought for. Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker described the struggle for respect in many similar and different ways. I stated earlier that for thousands of years women have been fighting for many things, one of the most important being respect and that respect was a feeling that cannot just be given to someone, it is a feeling that must be earned, fought for, or rewarded. I am proud of the long way that not only African American women have come, but women all race and I am blessed to have such profound women to look up to. Women in the past who have fought for our rights set a high standard for the rest of us to follow and I look forward to doing just so. Works Cited 1. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature: Second Edition Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Nellie Y. McKay.

Qualities of Leader

Different companies, teams and situations need different kinds of leader and leadership qualities. However those leaders always possess some basic qualities which I appreciate such as: communication, trustworthy, confidence, enthusiasm, stability, thoughtfulness and be a model. Communication is the key to become a good leader. He/She should stay close with the team and care for them in only their work but also their privation if possible.People always want to be cared, especially by their leader/boss. By communicating, the leader can find out others’ potential so that the assignment leads to effect results. Making time to listen, to meet, to celebrate with the team can develop the team spirit which is very important in teamworking. Creating trust in the team is very important for leaders. But at first the leader have to believe on his team that they will accomplish their assignments with the best results.Treating fairly also helps to inspire loyalty much. As a consequence, the leader will be well supportive Great leaders are enthusiatic people. They are always ready to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. Only by keeping their passion that they can deal with such a lot of work. Also, dedicated leaders can give their team inspiration and encourage them at work. Ability to keep a cool head is one of leaders’ qualities. When storms, emotions, crises,†¦ come and go, the team can only rely on their leader.Staying calm, finding out the reason and solution of such things, supporting the team are those things that a leader shound do. Another important quality is confidence. Leaders must be confident of their words, behaviour and making decision/judgement. Be sure of theirselves is the key to success and leaders are good examples of that. Finally, diligence is very necessary. A good leader should never forget to strengthen these qualities mentioned. Keeping up-to-date will help them to stand still in their leardership role.

Sexual Orientation and Inequality Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Sexual Orientation and Inequality - Term Paper Example This paper examines historical discourse on sexuality and gender identity how this history informs perceptions of sexual orientation and gender inequality. This paper traces the history and development of the conceptualization of gender roles and gender identity and how sexual orientation is dictated by those roles and identities. Therefore this paper is divided into two main parts. The first part of this paper examines the history and development of heterosexuality as a social construction of gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation. The second part of this paper examines the history and development of non-heterosexual identity and how traditional gender roles and identity influence how non-heterosexual identities are treated by the dominant heterosexually constructed society. Sexual Orientation and Inequality Introduction Gender inequality on the basis of sexual orientation is deeply rooted in social constructs that dictate gender identity and gender roles (Tomsen & Mas on, 2001). Historically, sexuality was informed by a perception that heterosexuality is the norm and sexuality is understood by reference to heterosexual norms and standards (Kitzinger, 2006). In this regard, heterosexual norms typically link heterosexuality to nature and thus being heterosexual means being normal or being normal (Sullivan, 2003). Therefore homosexuality, lesbianism, and bisexuality are judged by reference to the dominant heterosexual norm. This paper examines the definitions and historical developments informing sexual orientation and gender identity and identifies why sexual orientation forms the basis for gender inequality. It is argued that although, non-heterosexuals have made significant gains in terms of political, legal and social acceptance, preconceived notions of non-heterosexuality continues to be a basis of social marginalization. It would therefore appear, that marginalization on the grounds of sexual orientation may never be fully eliminated. It would appear that as long as cultural institutions formally alienate non-heterosexuals, it can be expected that social alienation of non-heterosexuals will be perpetuated. This research paper is divided into two main parts. The first part of this paper examines the history and development of heterosexuality and what this means for conceptualizing non-heterosexual identities. The second part of this paper examines the history and development of the conceptualization non-heterosexuals and how this conceptualization has changed over time. Heterosexuality Up to the 1980s, heterosexuality was defined in dictionaries as natural sexual relations. It was only during the 1980s that dictionaries defined heterosexuality as sexual relations between persons of the â€Å"opposite sex† (Sullivan, 2003, p. 119). It therefore follows that historically heterosexuality was defined in a way that distinguishes non-heterosexuality as abnormal and thus formed the basis of discrimination on the grounds o f sexual orientation. Despite a revised dictionary definition of heterosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexuality as natural sexual relations remained unchanged for the most part. As Caplan (1987) observed, any indication that individuals did not conform to heterosexual norms was perceived as a threat to normative perceptions of sexuality and what should be normal. Although prejudice against non-heterosexuality has declined persistently since the 1990s, prejudice continues to remain prevalent throughout the US (Herek, 2000). In the US heterosexism and religious fundamentalism†

Analysis of Effectiveness of Behavior Patterns - Part 4 Essay

Analysis of Effectiveness of Behavior Patterns - Part 4 - Essay Example Older employees face biases and they constantly fear the job loss. The reason for this is that they are the victims of downsizing and management thinks that they are no more of any use to the organization. It is not a sensitive approach, because they have an experience and in the field of education, experienced teachers are considered to be more capable than the new teachers. Favoritism was observed in the workplace and the favorite staff members of the management enjoy extra leisure time than the other people. This evokes a sense of rejection and disappointment in other staff members. Asian and Africans also face biases in the workplace, and sometimes feel lonely and confused. They are not given the same status in the organization as the other employees. They face alienation from the staff members and usually sit by their own during the work time. There are many cues, which encourage learning and the management should adopt them in order to develop a learning environment in the organization. The first thing, which encourages employee to learn, is that manager himself is practicing, what he is asking them to do. This helps a lot and employees carry on the practice happily. Unfortunately, it is not practiced in this organization. The second thing, which encourages learning, is that regular training session should be arranged. This keeps the employees in the practice of learning and they learn new things and methodologies1. The use of technology must be encouraged and should be made compulsory. They should be introduced with the websites, containing material about their job and like this they will learn new techniques and will be aware of the new searches in their respected fields. The training session should include not only the employees of the organization but also the employees of the partner organizations can be included. T his will bring excitement in the employees and they will show more enthusiasm and interest. Different

Proposed Interpretation to a Dilemma Faced Prime Minister Essay

Proposed Interpretation to a Dilemma Faced Prime Minister - Essay Example The Prime Minister may just cause the revocation of the appointment made to her daughter by instructing or influencing the board members who have a final say on the election of her daughter. The Prime Minister must remember that the position upon which appointment was made in favor of her daughter was not a confidential one under him for which the Prime Minister may find exemption under the existing laws of Canada. If the Prime Minister cannot avoid conflict on interest through revoking the appointment by his influence, the Prime Minister could still avail of some mitigation measure. 3.2 Disclosure of Financial and other material interest of the daughter. Under existing regulations conflict of interest could be controlled by disclosing the extent to which decisions could be affected reason of having relatives in the office for which any public official may be involved with. It is a recognized principle in good business practice that disclosing the possible source of conflict of inter est might at least prevent the instance of such public interest as the public is warned that the appointed daughter may not be inclined to enter into any contract that would redound to her personal interest. Thus the practice of requiring high-ranking government officials to disclose financial information on her assets such as stock, debts such as loans, and/or corporate positions held, typically annually or as required by existing rules may be appropriate in the case of the daughter of the Prime Minister.

Assignment Questions Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Assignment Questions - Case Study Example The coefficient of population does not in any way affect any other coefficient or be affected. What we can derive from the population coefficient is that 3.48 is stronger tham 2.0 and 5.5 is stronger than 3.48. Current accounting information is sufficient. Cost of production of the items varies but there is cost that is associated to unused capacity in the firm. If Einstein Inc. decides to stop production of Product to the unused capacity in the factory such as space, engineers and production managers will have extra cost on the produced products. To avoid the extra cost from unused capacity the firm would have to sell more items from the items that are performing or to release the resources that would carry this extra cost such as retrenching managers involved in production of product 2 The period under which the economy heats up will require extra resources to produce product 1 and 4 to the maximum output. The information given in above is not enough to make a decision on how much is maximum output as there resources need to produce any of the products is not included. In calculating the maximum output for product 1 and 4 the firm needs to measure the maximum output of its resources (lumpiness of capacity). They need to establish the maximum capacity they can handle and factor it. The will also need to calculate the cost per unit during the maximum period considering the cost or unused capacity of product 2 and 5 and the limited capacity for product 3. Determining the unit cost of the product will enable the firm to calculate the maximum number of products they can produce for product 1 and 4 and take care of the unused capacity of other products also the firm will need to consider capacity product 3 which might increase the cost of production if the volumes reduce. The information provided is not sufficient, as the cost of production is not separate. While, this is true the focus on products

What have I learned during the programme and how can I apply this in Essay

What have I learned during the programme and how can I apply this in my future career A critical reflection - Essay Example , and during the project which will be defined, highlighting the major ones will form the outline and backbone for what this particular response paper attempts to highlight. One of the most important, and perhaps most helpful, skills that I learned during the course of this particular project has to do with the process of developing new ideas. Ultimately, my group, which consisted of four individuals, found it necessary to develop a business plan and seeks to implement this business plan in a virtual setting. As such, many ideas were developed and analyzed within this group prior to one being selected. Whereas it is of course important to underscore the fact that each member of the group provided an essential role and ultimately help to the project towards completion, it was my suggestion that was determined to be the best and provided the basis for the business plan that was eventually developed (Bouma et al., 2014). The development of the business plan serves as an essential complement, and perhaps the most important aspect of learning that was achieved during this particular semester. The underlying reason for this has to do with the fact that the bu siness plan is far more than a rough interpretation for what service or product should be offered. Instead, the business plan must make preliminary projections and considerations with respect to how this will be affected, feasibility, economic issues, potential threats and weaknesses, and a litany of concerns involving finance and the way in which such a project would be initiated, supported, and projected into the market (Meadows & Buckley, 2014). In this way, rather than the development of the business plan only taking a few days or hours to complete, this process was one that instilled a level of respect in me with regard to the importance of carefully crafting the business plan and going about it in a thorough and analytical manner (Goodwin, 2002). In terms of how this particular aspect of the project could

Direct and marketing communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Direct and marketing communication - Essay Example Anthony Menswear preserves a comfortable shopping environment for customers so that it can provide contentment to customers (Anthony Menswear, â€Å"Anthony Independent Menswear – Cambridge UK†). The apparel industry in the UK is highly competitive with several big players, and it is vital for Anthony Menswear to revise the marketing system in order to increase the customer base. Managing good relationship is one of the success factors for Anthony Menswear to sustain in this competitive business environment. Therefore, the paper will attempt to establish and implement marketing communication plan for Anthony Menswear so that it can improve the direct relationship with the customers. Further, the paper will also focus on the importance of Dynamic Customer Relationship Management (DCRM) theory and apply the AIMRITE and SOSTAC framework to evaluate the choices. Dynamic Customer Relationship Management (DCRM) Theory Nowadays, effective customer relationship management (CRM) has become a strategic imperative for organizations in all business sectors, especially in retail apparel industry. In order to generate more value for the brands and for the customers, organizations are attempting to maintain a close relationships with the customers and thus using huge amount of money in CRM activities. Anthony Menswear will gain effectiveness if it focuses exclusively on attaining more customers rather than obtaining higher market share. The major aspect for enhancing customer relationship in Anthony Menswear is through developing information sharing, creating faith and pledge between relationship participants (Park & Kim, â€Å"A Framework Of Dynamic CRM: Linking Marketing With Information Strategy†). In Dynamic CRM, organizations not only focus on company’s and customers’ profits but also concentrate on relationships for future advantages. Customers should be measured as an investment and an asset for organizations. CRM has emerged as one o f the crucial marketing activities for companies functioning in dynamic commercial atmosphere. CRM can be regarded as an inclusive tactic and procedure of obtaining, retaining and associating with worthy customers in order to develop bigger value for the organization as well as the brand. In present days, CRM has developed as a method of preserving positive and commercial relations. Customer Touch Points: The touch point is considered as the point of interaction among the customers or the vision of organizations’ business. In apparel industry, touch is vital aspect for wooing customers. According to the observation of Stine & Et. Al., touch point is the â€Å"point at which products are purchased† (Singh & Lamba, â€Å"Maintaining CRM in Apparel Retailing through Touch Points: A Factor Analysis Approach†). It comprises of television advertisements and word-of-mouth among others. In Anthony Menswear, the major touch points are products and information sources. An thony Menswear provides quality and ranges of products to the customers; therefore the organization needs to develop the information management system. Presently, several customers are influenced by modern kinds of information sources such as internet, social networking, and television advert

Analyze the production of M.Butterfly Research Paper

Analyze the production of M.Butterfly - Research Paper Example David Hwang’s M Butterfly is one of the literary works that best speaks of the Asian nation and culture. It showcases the actual traits of Asian people giving birth to a new perception of their capacity in opposed to the world’s stereotyping. David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly is a fictional play that is based on historical account of a French diplomat that had an affair with a Chinese opera singer, who is after all a man. The play had its premiere at Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in the year 1988. The play garnered several Tony Awards. It is contextually rich and is considered as a spectacular, intriguing, and shocking tale that moves audiences not just from the East but also the population of the West. A close examination of this literary work creates an impact to the viewer’s perspective about gender, identity, cultural race, concepts of self and the issues of pervasive implications of stereotyping gender and race. The play is illuminating and shocking, portraying a different perspective to the audience about the grotesque clash of illusion with reality in the complex web of stereotypes. The play of M. Butterfly is set in a present day prison in Paris, France. Points in the history are revealed through flashbacks, dreams and memories. It started with Monsieur Rene Gallimard’s narration about his life at the cell. He dreams of a woman Song Liling, dancing to a love duet. Gallimard continues his hallucination of the events in the opera imagining himself as Pinkerton, a masculine figure. He thought to himself that the events in his past are similar with what happened in the opera, with him as the sensitive one. Scenes of Gallimard’s childhood are shown revealing his deep insecurity with the girls. There is a hint of identity crises in Gallimard based on the flashback scenes in the play. Liling Song, the opera singer, who plays the Madame Butterfly in the play, was

Report of Warwickshire College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Report of Warwickshire College - Essay Example ed for fashion, sport, beauty, hair and sport and after this, in the year 2007 the college merged with Pershore College in Worcestershire which is known as famous Centre of Horticulture Excellence (Warwickshire College, 2014). Liabilities can be defined as the obligations or legal debts which arise during the time of operation of the business. Liabilities can be paid off by money and goods or services. Liabilities include mortgages, both short and long term loans, accrued expenses, deferred revenues and accounts payable. These are important aspect of a business organization as they have an impact on the financial performance of the business. Generally current liabilities are those which are payable in one year and long term liabilities are those which can be paid over years (Holgate, 2006, pp. 122-123). Current Liabilities of the college will include Bank loans of 1000000 pounds, loans from other sources 44000 pounds, creditors of 2278000 pounds, Accruals of 1604000 pounds, unpaid VAT of 63000 pounds, payments that are received in advance of 683000 pounds and 1519000 pounds is to be paid to the skills funding agency. Long term liabilities include bank loans of 17000000 pounds, unpaid VAT of 184 ponds and loans from other sources of 24000 pounds (Warwickshire College, 2013, p. 40). Record keeping is also known as record management which is professional process to get easy and quick access and step by step guidance to access the confidential and archived records which may provide sensitive and personal records about the college. Record management process includes identifying, categorizing, selecting, storing, protecting, archiving, conserving, maintaining and demolishing the records. Record keeping is an important step for start up of Warwickshire College because management of records related to VAT and Tax liabilities will be helpful for the management to track the liabilities in future. The college is comes under Schedule 6of Finance Act 2010 and the college

Crossing Borders - Interracial Dating Essay Example for Free

Crossing Borders Interracial Dating Essay In the hodge-podge of American culture you are bound to find interracial dating. There are many differences between people. One that is obvious to the naked eye is the difference of race. In the society that we live in it is sometimes difficult for people of different races to be a couple. The Dominant Culture puts out an invisible border that separates people of different races. In an experiment that I did with a white friend named Michelle, we went out as a couple. Me being Indian and her being Caucasian posed some difficulties for some people to understand. We first went to a park and decided that we would just sit on the swings. There was another little Caucasian girl next to us. The next thing I saw really surprised me and Michelle. The mother of that little girl came and quickly grabbed her daughter and brought her to another part of the playground. All along, the mother looked at me and Michelle in a weird way. After that, we went to the shopping mall. Keeping in mind that we are in a predominantly white suburb, we held hands at the stores. People looked at us as if we were from another planet. I guess they could not believe that an Indian guy and a white girl could be going out on a date. We even brought another one of my friends to see the reaction of other people that me and Michelle could not see. Our other friend, Jim, said that many people kept on starring at us. Also that some people were whispering about us after they had passed us up. This really was a surprise to me. This experiment that I did was a real eye-opener because it gave me the evidence that people really were not happy seeing different races dating. Although this is not the opinion of all people, it seemed to be the opinion of a quite a number of people. These people are what keep the invisible border present in society. The real question that I asked myself is why this happened. One conclusion I came to was that since this was a primarily white suburb, people would not be too open to different races just being there. If someone different from them was to come into their society, it would be natural for them to not accept them. Especially in a situation that involved dating, people would be closed minded. Not only would they want themselves having nothing to do with interracial dating, they would want others of their same race not to be involved with interracial dating. The white people in this suburb probably looked down upon Michelle for being with an Indian guy. Furthermore, the events of September 11th did not help this situation either. Ever since that date, Indian people have been clumped into the whole middle-eastern terrorist category. This just gives the people of this suburb a reason to denounce me and our relationship. Much of this anger comes out of stereotypes. Since these people think that most middle-eastern people are bad or somehow connected to terrorism, this creates a stereotype that I am labeled with. Another reason we got such a hard time is that our cultures did not match up. Even though we have similar values, the customs of Caucasians and Indians are obviously different. Many people in the suburbs that we saw probably did not understand my culture, so what they do not understand, they do not like. People still have stereotypes of Indians. They might think that we cannot speak English or that we smell. These stereotypes bring the Indians in a lower regard with the dominant culture. Why is it harder for black and white couple to be accepted by society rather then an Indian and a white couple? This particular question can be answered in many ways. One of the many reasons is that social standards are set in our community that base blacks down the totem pole. Blacks have been discriminated against from the start of slavery and to this day in some rare cases. The dominant culture has looked down upon blacks because of their skin color for many generations. This is cause for the dominant culture to look down upon blacks. When it comes to Indians, some white people perceive Indians as somewhat semi-British. Whites are less prone to be against a relationship with an Indian person. It is more accepted for Indians to date white people because the dominant culture holds Indians in higher regards than blacks. It is because of biased thinking that this notion came into being. After everything, people are still not open to other ideas or beliefs. Even though the dominant culture puts out an invisible border, that border is becoming more visible with stereotypes that are put out there. This invisible border is displayed by their actions when they see interracial couples. They make it more difficult for these couples to be together. Other things like September 11th added to this invisible border in me and Michelles case. What this means is that the majority of our society will be closed minded to interracial dating. What it also means is that the racial lines will be erased if these couples get married and have children. The dominant culture wants to keep the races separate. In relating my experience with Michelle in that suburb, I felt like we should not be together as a couple. The reactions I got made me feel like I did something wrong. It is this feeling the invisible border is suppose to bring to me. I realized this only in the end. It is up me to decide who I date. It should be the concern of the two people that are dating and not the society.

Analysis of Australia and New Zealand Sustainability

Analysis of Australia and New Zealand Sustainability In the recent years, following increasing societal urges for responsible practices, involvement of the community, accountability, demand for more transparency, better working standards, contained GHGs emissions, and multiple other environmental and social elements (Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim, 2014, p.1) has given rise to a growing demand from stakeholders for corporate organisations to produce sustainable reports. Sustainable reporting as stated in the GRI 101: foundation is an organizations practice of reporting publicly on its economic, environmental, and/or social impacts, and hence its contributions positive or negative towards the goal of sustainable development (2016, p. 3). This report aims at evaluating various sustainability reporting tools and assess their impacts within the Australian context. Sustainability framework can be described as a set of guidelines put together to assist organisations producing a sustainability report with emphasis on a businesss material aspects, while focusing on the selection of the boundaries of the report. Above all, the framework highlights transparent reporting writing formats by providing technically-reviewed content and disclosure requirements (A GRI report is, 2017). These frameworks usually instigate a synoptic awareness risks and environmental impacts as well as opportunities/innovations. They additionally push for transparency regarding management strategies and quantifiable actions. They are astute about targeting areas that will have consequential impacts that ultimately translate to value for stakeholders (Some 227 members, 2016) For the purpose of this essay, the 2016 sustainability report of The Australian and New Zealand Banking Group has been studied. The report has been generated with the aid of various sustainability frameworks, however there are three major frameworks which are being considered namely DJSI (Dow Jones Sustainability Index), CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). The DJSI is a widely used sustainability framework which has some of the most advanced ESG index solutions put at the disposal to the asset management industry through an unprecedented set of criteria for gathering, analyzing, quantifying, and distributing ESG data. It basically consists of industries specific questionnaires featuring 80-120 questions aligned with the companies financially relevant economic, environmental and social factors that accompanies the conventional financial analysis. A major part of the corporate sustainability assessment is the Media and Stakeholder Analysis (MSA) which audits publicly available information and assesses whether the companies management systems are translating into performance (The RobecoSAM Corporate, 2016). The CDP framework is a tool for decision makers for them to capitalize on opportunities and manage risks via their environmental performances (We understand that, 2017).The CDP overlaps with other framework in terms of its approach through sending out questionnaires to businesses in the denomination of the investors backing the initiative, the Carbon Disclosure Project amasses information on the companies environmental activities such as the monitoring and reduction of carbon emissions. This information accommodates the investors to make apprised, climate risk-related decisions in their investment process. Predicated on the data it has amassed, the CDP withal publishes in-depth analyses on sundry environmental subjects every year, covering a wide range of geographical regions (Samuel O. Idowu, 2013) The GRI Reporting Framework is meant to be a framework accepted by all organization for reporting on their economic, environmental, and social performance, regardless their size, sector, or location. It takes into consideration the practical issues faced by various organizations ranging ones having local operations to ones dispersing their operations internationally. The GRI Reporting Framework contains general as well as sector-specific content that has been agreed by multitude of stakeholders globally to be applied generally for reporting an organizations sustainability performance. The Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, now standards in the GRI are made up of principles for which define report content and ensure the quality of reported information. It also includes Standard Disclosures consisting of Performance Indicators and other disclosure items and guidance on specific technical topics in reporting (Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, 2016, p.3). CDP provides a framework for firms to measure and disclose their Greenhouse Gas (GHG), water, and supply chain performance. While the prime objective of CDP is climate change mitigation and protection of natural resources. GRI and DJSI, on the other hand, focus on the economic, environmental, and social impact of an organizations material activities on its stakeholders. The CDP and GRI frameworks are available to the public but for data to be submitted to DJSI, companies must be invited and the results of the analysis are not available in the public domain. (Mark Sellberg, 25 Nov 2015) These frameworks also target different audiences. While CDP and DJSI target investors as their main audience. The GRI reports primary stakeholder are based upon the material issues for the company and typically include shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, regulators, NGOs, and local communities. In Australia sustainability reporting is voluntary. Companies choosing to do so in order to inform non-shareholder stakeholders about the companys performance with regards to the three main pillars of sustainability and setting up strategies for improve their impacts while disclosing to all stakeholders how a company is dealing with material non-financial and financial risks. According to Certified Practicing Accountants Australias (CPA Australia) 2004-2007 report Sustainability, Practice, Performance and Potential, there exists a strong correlation relating sustainability reporting and low probability of corporate distress. This relationship may also indicate the producing sustainability reports are proactive versus more prominent risks to their business and can prepare long term and integrated approach to risk benefitting both shareholders and stakeholders To address the diverse needs of Australias business community, one prime principle of sustainability was identified to be flexibility so that listed entities could first consider and then disclose sustainability or non-financial information that is pertinent to the (Ian Matheson, 2012, p.2) The ASX Corporate Governance Councils Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations views are that if the size, structure and operations of organisations differ hence flexibility must be allowed in the structures adopted to maximise individual performance. Even though, flexibility is granted, organisations should be accountable to investors for their alternative which is the if not, why not obligation. On the other hand, multiple submitters believe that there is a need for compulsory sustainability disclosures provide stakeholders with assurance that companies are doing business accountably and transparently so that players who currently ignore CSR come up to the standard, even if it is a minimum, as it will provide authorities something against which they can hold them to account. (Rod Masson, 2012, p.42) Finally, in that sense it can be seen from the ANZ banking group sustainability report that the organization has chosen a combination of sustainability framework so as to meet answer the expectations of their different stakeholders and at the same time identify areas to improve their operational or management activities, find better managerial strategies for their non-financial risks, find new markets or business opportunities and measure their performance against their competitors. (ANZ, Corporate Sustainability Review 2016)

Development of Intelligent Sensor System

Development of Intelligent Sensor System Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction What is Automation? Automation in general, can be explained as the use of computers or microcontrollers to control industrial machinery and processes thereby fully replacing human operators. Automation is a kind of transition from mechanization. In mechanization, human operators are provided with machinery to assist their operations, where as automation fully replaces the human operators with computers. The advantages of automation are: Increased productivity and higher production rates. Better product quality and efficient use of resources. Greater control and consistency of products. Improved safety and reduced factory lead times. Home Automation Home automation is the field specializing in the general and specific automation requirements of homes and apartments for their better safety, security and comfort of its residents. It is also called Domotics. Home automation can be as simple as controlling a few lights in the house or as complicated as to monitor and to record the activities of each resident. Automation requirements depend on person to person. Some may be interested in the home security while others will be more into comfort requirements. Basically, home automation is anything that gives automatic control of things in your house. Some of the commonly used features in home automation are: Control of lighting. Climate control of rooms. Security and surveillance systems. Control of home entertainment systems. House plant watering system. Overhead tank water level controllers. Intelligent Sensors Complex large-scale systems consist of a large number of interconnected components. Mastering the dynamic behavior of such systems, calls for distributed control architectures. This can be achieved by implementing control and estimation algorithms in several controllers. Some algorithms manipulate only local variables (which are available in the local interface) but in most cases, algorithms implemented in some given computing device will use variables which are available in this devices local interface, and also variables which are input to the control system via remote interfaces, thus rising the need for communication networks, whose architecture and complexity depend on the amount of data to be exchanged, and on the associated time constraints. Associating computing (and communication) devices with sensing or actuating functions, has given rise to intelligent sensors. These sensors have gained a huge success in the past ten years, especially with the development of neural network s, fuzzy logic, and soft computing algorithms. The modern definition of smart or intelligent sensors can be formulated now as: ‘Smart sensor is an electronic device, including sensing element, interfacing, signal processing and having several intelligence functions as self-testing, self-identification, self-validation or self-adaptation. The keyword in this definition is ‘intelligence. The self-adaptation is a relatively new function of smart sensors and sensor systems. Self-adaptation smart sensors and systems are based on so-called adaptive algorithms and directly connected with precision measurements of frequency-time parameters of electrical signals. The later chapters will give an elaborate view on why we should use intelligent sensors, intelligent sensor structure, characteristics and network standards. Chapter 2 2.1 Conventional Sensors Before talking more on intelligent sensors, first we need to examine regular sensors in order to obtain a solid foundation on which we can develop our understanding on intelligent sensors. Most of the conventional sensors have shortcomings, both technically and economically. For a sensor to work effectively, it must be calibrated. That is, its output must be made to match some predetermined standard so that its reported values correctly reflect the parameter being measured. In the case of a bulb thermometer, the graduations next to the mercury column must be positioned so that they accurately correspond to the level of mercury for a given temperature. If the sensor is not calibrated, the information that it reports wont be accurate, which can be a big problem for the systems that use the reported information. The second concern one has when dealing with sensors is that their properties usually change over time, a phenomenon knows as drift. For instance, suppose we are measuring a DC current in a particular part of a circuit by monitoring the voltage across a resistor in that circuit. In this case, the sensor is the resistor and the physical property that we are measuring the voltage across it. As the resistor ages, its chemical properties will change, thus altering its resistance. As with the issue of calibration, some situations require much stricter drift tolerances than others; the point is that sensor properties will change with time unless we compensate for the drift in some fashion, and these changes are usually undesirable. The third problem is that not only do sensors themselves change with time, but so, too, does the environment in which they operate. An excellent example of that would be the electronic ignition for an internal combustion engine. Immediately after a tune-up, all the belts are tight, the spark plugs are new, the fuel injectors are clean, and the air filter is pristine. From that moment on, things go downhill; the belts loosen, deposits build up on the spark plugs and fuel injectors, and the air filter becomes clogged with ever-increasing amounts of dirt and dust. Unless the electronic ignition can measure how things are changing and make adjustments, the settings and timing sequence that it uses to fire the spark plugs will become progressively mismatched for the engine conditions, resulting in poorer performance and reduced fuel efficiency. The ability to compensate for often extreme changes in the operating environment makes a huge difference in a sensors value to a particular applic ation. Yet a fourth problem is that most sensors require some sort of specialized hardware called signal-conditioning circuitry in order to be of use in monitoring or control applications. The signal-conditioning circuitry is what transforms the physical sensor property that were monitoring (often an analog electrical voltage that varies in some systematic way with the parameter being measured) into a measurement that can be used by the rest of the system. Depending upon the application, the signal conditioning may be as simple as a basic amplifier that boosts the sensor signal to a usable level or it may entail complex circuitry that cleans up the sensor signal and compensates for environmental conditions, too. Frequently, the conditioning circuitry itself has to be tuned for the specific sensor being used, and for analog signals that often means physically adjusting a potentiometer or other such trimming device. In addition, the configuration of the signal-conditioning circuitry tends to be unique to both the specific type of sensor and to the application itself, which means that different types of sensors or different applications frequently need customized circuitry. Finally, standard sensors usually need to be physically close to the control and monitoring systems that receive their measurements. In general, the farther a sensor is from the system using its measurements, the less useful the measurements are. This is due primarily to the fact that sensor signals that are run long distances are susceptible to electronic noise, thus degrading the quality of the readings at the receiving end. In many cases, sensors are connected to the monitoring and control systems using specialized (and expensive) cabling; the longer this cabling is, the more costly the installation, which is never popular with end users. A related problem is that sharing sensor outputs among multiple systems becomes very difficult, particularly if those systems are physically separated. This inability to share outputs may not seem important, but it severely limits the ability to scale systems to large installations, resulting in much higher costs to install and support multiple r edundant sensors. What we really need to do is to develop some technique by which we can solve or at least greatly alleviate these problems of calibration, drift, and signal conditioning. 2.2 Making Sensors Intelligent Control systems are becoming increasingly complicated and generate increasingly complex control information. Control must nevertheless be exercised, even under such circumstances. Even considering just the detection of abnormal conditions or the problems of giving a suitable warning, devices are required that can substitute for or assist human sensation, by detecting and recognizing multi-dimensional information, and conversion of non visual information into visual form. In systems possessing a high degree of functionality, efficiency must be maximized by division of the information processing function into central processing and processing dispersed to local sites. With increased progress in automation, it has become widely recognized that the bottleneck in such systems lies with the sensors. Such demands are difficult to deal with by simply improvising the sensor devices themselves. Structural reinforcement, such as using array of sensors, or combinations of different types of sensors, and reinforcement from the data processing aspect by a signal processing unit such as a computer, are indispensible. In particular, the data processing and sensing aspects of the various stages involved in multi-dimensional measurement, image construction, characteristic extraction and pattern recognition, which were conventionally performed exclusively by human beings, have been tremendously enhanced by advances in micro-electronics. As a result, in many cases sensor systems have been implemented that substitute for some or all of the intellectual actions of human beings, i.e. intelligent sensor systems. Sensors which are made intelligent in this way are called ‘intelligent sensors or ‘smart sensors. According to Breckenridge and Husson, the smart sensor itself has a data processing function and automatic calibration/automatic compensation function, in which the sensor itself detects and eliminates abnormal values or exceptional values. It incorporates an algorithm, which is capable of being altered, and has a certain degree of memory function. Further desirable characteristics are that the sensor is coupled to other sensors, adapts to changes in environmental conditions, and has a discriminant function. Scientific measuring instruments that are employed for observation and measurement of physical world are indispensible extensions of our senses and perceptions in the scientific examination of nature. In recognizing nature, we mobilize all the resources of information obtained from the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell etc. and combine these sensory data in such a way as to avoid contradiction. Thus more reliable, higher order data is obtained by combining data of different types. That is, there is a data processing mechanism that combines and processes a number of sensory data. The concept of combining sensors to implement such a data processing mechanism is called ‘sensor fusion 2.2.1 Digitizing the Sensor Signal The discipline of digital signal processing or DSP, in which signals are manipulated mathematically rather than with electronic circuitry, is well established and widely practiced. Standard transformations, such as filtering to remove unwanted noise or frequency mappings to identify particular signal components, are easily handled using DSP. Furthermore, using DSP principles we can perform operations that would be impossible using even the most advanced electronic circuitry. For that very reason, todays designers also include a stage in the signal-conditioning circuitry in which the analog electrical signal is converted into a digitized numeric value. This step, called analog-to-digital conversion, A/D conversion, or ADC, is vitally important, because as soon as we can transform the sensor signal into a numeric value, we can manipulate it using software running on a microprocessor. Analog-to-digital converters, or ADCs as theyre referred to, are usually single-chip semiconductor devices that can be made to be highly accurate and highly stable under varying environmental conditions. The required signal-conditioning circuitry can often be significantly reduced, since much of the environmental compensation circuitry can be made a part of the ADC and filtering can be performed in software. 2.2.2 Adding Intelligence Once the sensor signal has been digitized, there are two primary options in how we handle those numeric values and the algorithms that manipulate them. We can either choose to implement custom digital hardware that essentially â€Å"hard-wires† our processing algorithm, or we can use a microprocessor to provide the necessary computational power. In general, custom hardware can run faster than microprocessor-driven systems, but usually at the price of increased production costs and limited flexibility. Microprocessors, while not necessarily as fast as a custom hardware solution, offer the great advantage of design flexibility and tend to be lower-priced since they can be applied to a variety of situations rather than a single application. Once we have on-board intelligence, were able to solve several of the problems that we noted earlier. Calibration can be automated, component drift can be virtually eliminated through the use of purely mathematical processing algorithms, and we can compensate for environmental changes by monitoring conditions on a periodic basis and making the appropriate adjustments automatically. Adding a brain makes the designers life much easier. 2.2.3 Communication Interface The sharing of measurements with other components within the system or with other systems adds to the value of these measurements. To do this, we need to equip our intelligent sensor with a standardized means to communicate its information to other elements. By using standardized methods of communication, we ensure that the sensors information can be shared as broadly, as easily, and as reliably as possible, thus maximizing the usefulness of the sensor and the information it produces. Thus these three factors consider being mandatory for an intelligent sensor: A sensing element that measures one or more physical parameters (essentially the traditional sensor weve been discussing), A computational element that analyzes the measurements made by the sensing element, and A communication interface to the outside world that allows the device to exchange information with other components in a larger system. Its the last two elements that really distinguish intelligent sensors from their more common standard sensor relatives because they provide the abilities to turn data directly into information, to use that information locally, and to communicate it to other elements in the system. 2.3 Types of Intelligent Sensors Intelligent sensors are chosen depending on the object, application, precision system, environment of use and cost etc. In such cases consideration must be given as to what is an appropriate evaluation standard. This question involves a multi-dimensional criterion and is usually very difficult. The evaluation standard directly reflects the sense of value itself applied in the design and manufacture of the target system. This must therefore be firmly settled at the system design stage. In sensor selection, the first matter to be considered is determination of the subject of measurement. The second matter to be decided on is the required precision and dynamic range. The third is ease of use, cost, delivery time etc., and ease of maintenance in actual use and compatibility with other sensors in the system. The type of sensor should be matched to such requirements at the design stage. Sensors are usually classified by the subject of measurement and the principle of sensing action. 2.3.1 Classification Based on Type of Input In this, the sensor is classified in accordance with the physical phenomenon that is needed to be detected and the subject of measurement. Some of the examples include voltage, current, displacement and pressure. A list of sensors and their categories are mentioned in the following table. Category Type Dynamic Quantity Flow rate, Pressure, force, tension Speed, acceleration Sound, vibration Distortion, direction proximity Optical Quantities Light (infra red, visible light or radiation) Electromagnetic Quantities Current, voltage, frequency, phase, vibration, magnetism Quantity of Energy or Heat Temperature, humidity, dew point Chemical Quantities Analytic sensors, gas, odour, concentration, pH, ions Sensory Quantities or Biological Quantities Touch, vision, smell Table 2.3.1: Sensed items Classified in accordance with subject of measurement. 2.3.2 Classification Based on Type of Output In an intelligent sensor, it is often necessary to process in an integrated manner the information from several sensors or from a single sensor over a given time range. A computer of appropriate level is employed for such purposes in practically y all cases. For coupling to the computer when constructing an intelligent sensor system, a method with a large degree of freedom is therefore appropriate. It is also necessary to pay careful attention to the type of physical quantity carrying the output information to the sensor, and to the information description format of this physical quantity or dynamic quantity, and for the description format an analog, digital or encoded method etc., might be used. Although any physical quantities could be used as output signal, electrical quantities such as voltage are more convenient for data input to a computer. The format of the output signal can be analog or digital. For convenience in data input to the computer, it is preferable if the output signal of the sensor itself is in the form of a digital electrical signal. In such cases, a suitable means of signal conversion must be provided to input the data from the sensor to the computer 2.3.3 Classification Based on Accuracy When a sensor system is constructed, the accuracy of the sensors employed is a critical factor. Usually sensor accuracy is expressed as the minimum detectable quantity. This is determined by the sensitivity of the sensor and the internally generated noise of the sensor itself. Higher sensitivity and lower internal noise level imply greater accuracy. Generally for commercially available sensors the cost of the sensor is determined by the accuracy which it is required to have. If no commercial sensor can be found with the necessary accuracy, a custom product must be used, which will increase the costs. For ordinary applications an accuracy of about 0.1% is sufficient. Such sensors can easily be selected from commercially available models. Dynamic range (full scale deflection/minimum detectable quantity) has practically the same meaning as accuracy, and is expressed in decibel units. For example a dynamic range of 60dB indicates that the full scale deflection is 103 times the minimum detectable quantity. That is, a dynamic range of 60dB is equivalent to 0.1% accuracy. In conventional sensors, linearity of output was regarded as quite important. However, in intelligent sensor technology the final stage is normally data processing by computer, so output linearity is not a particular problem. Any sensor providing a reproducible relationship of input and output signal can be used in an intelligent sensor system. Chapter 3 3.1 Sensor selection The function of a sensor is to receive some action from a single phenomenon of the subject of measurement and to convert this to another physical phenomenon that can be more easily handled. The phenomenon constituting the subject of measurement is called the input signal, and the phenomenon after conversion is called the output signal. The ratio of the output signal to the input signal is called the transmittance or gain. Since the first function of a sensor is to convert changes in the subject of measurement to a physical phenomenon that can be more easily handled, i.e. its function consists in primary conversion, its conversion efficiency, or the degree of difficulty in delivering the output signal to the transducer constituting the next stage is of secondary importance The first point to which attention must be paid in sensor selection is to preserve as far as possible the information of the input signal. This is equivalent to preventing lowering of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, if the SNR of the input signal is 60 dB, a sensor of dynamic range less than 60 dB should not be used. In order to detect changes in the quantity being measured as faithfully as possible, a sensor is required to have the following properties. Non-interference. This means that its output should not be changed by factors other than changes in the subject of measurement. Conversion satisfying this condition is called direct measurement. Conversion wherein the measurement quantity is found by calculation from output signals determined under the influence of several input signals is called indirect measurement. High sensitivity. The amount of change of the output signal that is produced by a change of unit amount of the input quantity being measured, i.e. the gain, should be as large as possible. Small measurement pressure. This means that the sensor should not disturb the physical conditions of the subject of measurement. From this point of view, modulation conversion offers more freedom than direct-acting conversion. High speed. The sensor should have sufficiently high speed of reaction to track the maximum anticipated rate of variation of the measured quantity. Low noise. The noise generated by the sensor itself should be as little as possible. Robustness. The output signal must be at least more robust than the quantity being measured, and be easier to handle. Robustness means resistance to environmental changes and/or noise. In general, phenomena of large energy are more resistant to external disturbance such as noise than are phenomena of smaller energy, they are easier to handle, and so have better robustness. If a sensor can be obtained that satisfies all these conditions, there is no problem. However, in practice, one can scarcely expect to obtain a sensor satisfying all these conditions. In such cases, it is necessary to combine the sensor with a suitable compensation mechanism, or to compensate the transducer of the secondary converter. Progress in IC manufacturing technology has made it possible to integrate various sensor functions. With the progressive shift from mainframes to minicomputers and hence to microcomputers, control systems have changed from centralized processing systems to distributed processing systems. Sensor technology has also benefited from such progress in IC manufacturing technology, with the result that systems whereby information from several sensors is combined and processed have changed from centralized systems to dispersed systems. Specifically, attempts are being made to use silicon-integrated sensors in a role combining primary data processing and input in systems that measure and process two-dimensional information such as picture information. This is a natural application of silicon precision working technology and digital circuit technology, which have been greatly advanced by introduction of VLSI manufacturing technology. Three-dimensional integrated circuits for recognizing letter patterns and odour sensors, etc., are examples of this. Such sensor systems can be called perfectly intelligent sensors in that they themselves have a certain data processing capability. It is characteristic of such sensors to combine several sensor inputs and to include a microprocessor that performs data processing. Their output signal is not a simple conversion of the input signal, but rather an abstract quantity obtained by some reorganization and combination of input signals from several sensors. This type of signal conversion is now often performed by a distributed processing mechanism, in which microprocessors are used to carry out the data processing that was previously performed by a centralized computer system having a large number of interfaces to individual sensors. However, the miniaturization obtained by application of integrated circuit techniques brings about an increase in the flexibility of coupling between elements. This has a substantial effect. Sensors of this type constitute a new technology that is at present being researched and developed. Although further progress can be expected, the overall picture cannot be predicted at the present time. Technically, practically free combinations of sensors can be implemented with the object of so-called indirect measurement, in which the signals from several individual sensors that were conventionally present are collected and used as the basis for a new output signal. In many aspects, new ideas are required concerning determination of the object of measurement, i.e. which measured quantities are to be selected, determination of the individual functions to achieve this, and the construction of the framework to organize these as a system. 3.2 Structure of an Intelligent Sensor The rapidity of development in microelectronics has had a profound effect on the whole of instrumentation science, and it has blurred some of the conceptual boundaries which once seemed so firm. In the present context the boundary between sensors and instruments is particularly uncertain. Processes which were once confined to a large electronic instrument are now available within the housing of a compact sensor, and it is some of these processes which we discuss later in this chapter. An instrument in our context is a system which is designed primarily to act as a free standing device for performing a particular set of measurements; the provision of communications facilities is of secondary importance. A sensor is a system which is designed primarily to serve a host system and without its communication channel it cannot serve its purpose. Nevertheless, the structures and processes used within either device, be they hardware or software, are similar. The range of disciplines which arc brought together in intelligent sensor system design is considerable, and the designer of such systems has to become something of a polymath. This was one of the problems in the early days of computer-aided measurement and there was some resistance from the backwoodsmen who practiced the art of measurement. 3.2.1 Elements of Intelligent Sensors The intelligent sensor is an example of a system, and in it we can identify a number of sub-systems whose functions are clearly distinguished from each other. The principal sub-systems within an intelligent sensor are: A primary sensing element Excitation Control Amplification (Possibly variable gain) Analogue filtering Data conversion Compensation Digital Information Processing Digital Communication Processing The figure illustrates the way in which these sub-systems relate to each other. Some of the realizations of intelligent sensors, particularly the earlier ones, may incorporate only some of these elements. The primary sensing element has an obvious fundamental importance. It is more than simply the familiar traditional sensor incorporated into a more up-to-date system. Not only are new materials and mechanisms becoming available for exploitation, but some of those that have been long known yet discarded because of various difficulties of behaviour may now be reconsidered in the light of the presence of intelligence to cope with these difficul ­ties. Excitation control can take a variety of forms depending on the circumstances. Some sensors, such as the thermocouple, convert energy directly from one form to another without the need for additional excitation. Others may require fairly elaborate forms of supply. It may be alternating or pulsed for subsequent coherent or phase-sensitive detection. In some circumstances it may be necessary to provide extremely stable supplies to the sensing element, while in others it may be necessary for those supplies to form part of a control loop to maintain the operating condition of the clement at some desired optimum. While this aspect may not be thought fundamental to intelligent sensors there is a largely unexplored range of possibilities for combining it with digital processing to produce novel instrumentation techniques. Amplification of the electrical output of the primary sensing element is almost invariably a requirement. This can pose design problems where high gain is needed. Noise is a particular hazard, and a circumstance unique to the intelligent form of sensor is the presence of digital buses carrying signals with sharp transitions. For this reason circuit layout is a particularly important part of the design process. Analogue filtering is required at minimum to obviate aliasing effects in the conversion stage, but it is also attractive where digital filtering would lake up too much of the real-time processing power available. Data conversion is the stage of transition between the continuous real world and the discrete internal world of the digital processor. It is important to bear in mind that the process of analogue to digital conversion is a non-linear one and represents a potentially gross distortion of the incoming information. It is important, however, for the intelligent sensor designer always to remember that this corruption is present, and in certain circumstances it can assume dominating importance. Such circumstances would include the case where the conversion process is part of a control loop or where some sort of auto-ranging, overt or covert, is built in to the operational program. Compensation is an inevitable part of the intelligent sensor. The operating point of the sensors may change due to various reasons. One of them is temperature. So an intelligent sensor must have an inbuilt compensation setup to bring the operating point back to its standard set stage. Information processing is, of course, unique to the intelligent form of sensor. There is some overlap between compensation and information processing, but there are also significant areas on independence. An important aspect is the condensation of information, which is necessary to preserve the two most precious resources of the industrial measurement system, the information bus and the central processor. A prime example of data condensa ­tion occurs in the Doppler velocimctcr in which a substantial quantity of informa ­tion is reduced to a single number representing the velocity. Sensor compensation will in general require the processi Development of Intelligent Sensor System Development of Intelligent Sensor System Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction What is Automation? Automation in general, can be explained as the use of computers or microcontrollers to control industrial machinery and processes thereby fully replacing human operators. Automation is a kind of transition from mechanization. In mechanization, human operators are provided with machinery to assist their operations, where as automation fully replaces the human operators with computers. The advantages of automation are: Increased productivity and higher production rates. Better product quality and efficient use of resources. Greater control and consistency of products. Improved safety and reduced factory lead times. Home Automation Home automation is the field specializing in the general and specific automation requirements of homes and apartments for their better safety, security and comfort of its residents. It is also called Domotics. Home automation can be as simple as controlling a few lights in the house or as complicated as to monitor and to record the activities of each resident. Automation requirements depend on person to person. Some may be interested in the home security while others will be more into comfort requirements. Basically, home automation is anything that gives automatic control of things in your house. Some of the commonly used features in home automation are: Control of lighting. Climate control of rooms. Security and surveillance systems. Control of home entertainment systems. House plant watering system. Overhead tank water level controllers. Intelligent Sensors Complex large-scale systems consist of a large number of interconnected components. Mastering the dynamic behavior of such systems, calls for distributed control architectures. This can be achieved by implementing control and estimation algorithms in several controllers. Some algorithms manipulate only local variables (which are available in the local interface) but in most cases, algorithms implemented in some given computing device will use variables which are available in this devices local interface, and also variables which are input to the control system via remote interfaces, thus rising the need for communication networks, whose architecture and complexity depend on the amount of data to be exchanged, and on the associated time constraints. Associating computing (and communication) devices with sensing or actuating functions, has given rise to intelligent sensors. These sensors have gained a huge success in the past ten years, especially with the development of neural network s, fuzzy logic, and soft computing algorithms. The modern definition of smart or intelligent sensors can be formulated now as: ‘Smart sensor is an electronic device, including sensing element, interfacing, signal processing and having several intelligence functions as self-testing, self-identification, self-validation or self-adaptation. The keyword in this definition is ‘intelligence. The self-adaptation is a relatively new function of smart sensors and sensor systems. Self-adaptation smart sensors and systems are based on so-called adaptive algorithms and directly connected with precision measurements of frequency-time parameters of electrical signals. The later chapters will give an elaborate view on why we should use intelligent sensors, intelligent sensor structure, characteristics and network standards. Chapter 2 2.1 Conventional Sensors Before talking more on intelligent sensors, first we need to examine regular sensors in order to obtain a solid foundation on which we can develop our understanding on intelligent sensors. Most of the conventional sensors have shortcomings, both technically and economically. For a sensor to work effectively, it must be calibrated. That is, its output must be made to match some predetermined standard so that its reported values correctly reflect the parameter being measured. In the case of a bulb thermometer, the graduations next to the mercury column must be positioned so that they accurately correspond to the level of mercury for a given temperature. If the sensor is not calibrated, the information that it reports wont be accurate, which can be a big problem for the systems that use the reported information. The second concern one has when dealing with sensors is that their properties usually change over time, a phenomenon knows as drift. For instance, suppose we are measuring a DC current in a particular part of a circuit by monitoring the voltage across a resistor in that circuit. In this case, the sensor is the resistor and the physical property that we are measuring the voltage across it. As the resistor ages, its chemical properties will change, thus altering its resistance. As with the issue of calibration, some situations require much stricter drift tolerances than others; the point is that sensor properties will change with time unless we compensate for the drift in some fashion, and these changes are usually undesirable. The third problem is that not only do sensors themselves change with time, but so, too, does the environment in which they operate. An excellent example of that would be the electronic ignition for an internal combustion engine. Immediately after a tune-up, all the belts are tight, the spark plugs are new, the fuel injectors are clean, and the air filter is pristine. From that moment on, things go downhill; the belts loosen, deposits build up on the spark plugs and fuel injectors, and the air filter becomes clogged with ever-increasing amounts of dirt and dust. Unless the electronic ignition can measure how things are changing and make adjustments, the settings and timing sequence that it uses to fire the spark plugs will become progressively mismatched for the engine conditions, resulting in poorer performance and reduced fuel efficiency. The ability to compensate for often extreme changes in the operating environment makes a huge difference in a sensors value to a particular applic ation. Yet a fourth problem is that most sensors require some sort of specialized hardware called signal-conditioning circuitry in order to be of use in monitoring or control applications. The signal-conditioning circuitry is what transforms the physical sensor property that were monitoring (often an analog electrical voltage that varies in some systematic way with the parameter being measured) into a measurement that can be used by the rest of the system. Depending upon the application, the signal conditioning may be as simple as a basic amplifier that boosts the sensor signal to a usable level or it may entail complex circuitry that cleans up the sensor signal and compensates for environmental conditions, too. Frequently, the conditioning circuitry itself has to be tuned for the specific sensor being used, and for analog signals that often means physically adjusting a potentiometer or other such trimming device. In addition, the configuration of the signal-conditioning circuitry tends to be unique to both the specific type of sensor and to the application itself, which means that different types of sensors or different applications frequently need customized circuitry. Finally, standard sensors usually need to be physically close to the control and monitoring systems that receive their measurements. In general, the farther a sensor is from the system using its measurements, the less useful the measurements are. This is due primarily to the fact that sensor signals that are run long distances are susceptible to electronic noise, thus degrading the quality of the readings at the receiving end. In many cases, sensors are connected to the monitoring and control systems using specialized (and expensive) cabling; the longer this cabling is, the more costly the installation, which is never popular with end users. A related problem is that sharing sensor outputs among multiple systems becomes very difficult, particularly if those systems are physically separated. This inability to share outputs may not seem important, but it severely limits the ability to scale systems to large installations, resulting in much higher costs to install and support multiple r edundant sensors. What we really need to do is to develop some technique by which we can solve or at least greatly alleviate these problems of calibration, drift, and signal conditioning. 2.2 Making Sensors Intelligent Control systems are becoming increasingly complicated and generate increasingly complex control information. Control must nevertheless be exercised, even under such circumstances. Even considering just the detection of abnormal conditions or the problems of giving a suitable warning, devices are required that can substitute for or assist human sensation, by detecting and recognizing multi-dimensional information, and conversion of non visual information into visual form. In systems possessing a high degree of functionality, efficiency must be maximized by division of the information processing function into central processing and processing dispersed to local sites. With increased progress in automation, it has become widely recognized that the bottleneck in such systems lies with the sensors. Such demands are difficult to deal with by simply improvising the sensor devices themselves. Structural reinforcement, such as using array of sensors, or combinations of different types of sensors, and reinforcement from the data processing aspect by a signal processing unit such as a computer, are indispensible. In particular, the data processing and sensing aspects of the various stages involved in multi-dimensional measurement, image construction, characteristic extraction and pattern recognition, which were conventionally performed exclusively by human beings, have been tremendously enhanced by advances in micro-electronics. As a result, in many cases sensor systems have been implemented that substitute for some or all of the intellectual actions of human beings, i.e. intelligent sensor systems. Sensors which are made intelligent in this way are called ‘intelligent sensors or ‘smart sensors. According to Breckenridge and Husson, the smart sensor itself has a data processing function and automatic calibration/automatic compensation function, in which the sensor itself detects and eliminates abnormal values or exceptional values. It incorporates an algorithm, which is capable of being altered, and has a certain degree of memory function. Further desirable characteristics are that the sensor is coupled to other sensors, adapts to changes in environmental conditions, and has a discriminant function. Scientific measuring instruments that are employed for observation and measurement of physical world are indispensible extensions of our senses and perceptions in the scientific examination of nature. In recognizing nature, we mobilize all the resources of information obtained from the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell etc. and combine these sensory data in such a way as to avoid contradiction. Thus more reliable, higher order data is obtained by combining data of different types. That is, there is a data processing mechanism that combines and processes a number of sensory data. The concept of combining sensors to implement such a data processing mechanism is called ‘sensor fusion 2.2.1 Digitizing the Sensor Signal The discipline of digital signal processing or DSP, in which signals are manipulated mathematically rather than with electronic circuitry, is well established and widely practiced. Standard transformations, such as filtering to remove unwanted noise or frequency mappings to identify particular signal components, are easily handled using DSP. Furthermore, using DSP principles we can perform operations that would be impossible using even the most advanced electronic circuitry. For that very reason, todays designers also include a stage in the signal-conditioning circuitry in which the analog electrical signal is converted into a digitized numeric value. This step, called analog-to-digital conversion, A/D conversion, or ADC, is vitally important, because as soon as we can transform the sensor signal into a numeric value, we can manipulate it using software running on a microprocessor. Analog-to-digital converters, or ADCs as theyre referred to, are usually single-chip semiconductor devices that can be made to be highly accurate and highly stable under varying environmental conditions. The required signal-conditioning circuitry can often be significantly reduced, since much of the environmental compensation circuitry can be made a part of the ADC and filtering can be performed in software. 2.2.2 Adding Intelligence Once the sensor signal has been digitized, there are two primary options in how we handle those numeric values and the algorithms that manipulate them. We can either choose to implement custom digital hardware that essentially â€Å"hard-wires† our processing algorithm, or we can use a microprocessor to provide the necessary computational power. In general, custom hardware can run faster than microprocessor-driven systems, but usually at the price of increased production costs and limited flexibility. Microprocessors, while not necessarily as fast as a custom hardware solution, offer the great advantage of design flexibility and tend to be lower-priced since they can be applied to a variety of situations rather than a single application. Once we have on-board intelligence, were able to solve several of the problems that we noted earlier. Calibration can be automated, component drift can be virtually eliminated through the use of purely mathematical processing algorithms, and we can compensate for environmental changes by monitoring conditions on a periodic basis and making the appropriate adjustments automatically. Adding a brain makes the designers life much easier. 2.2.3 Communication Interface The sharing of measurements with other components within the system or with other systems adds to the value of these measurements. To do this, we need to equip our intelligent sensor with a standardized means to communicate its information to other elements. By using standardized methods of communication, we ensure that the sensors information can be shared as broadly, as easily, and as reliably as possible, thus maximizing the usefulness of the sensor and the information it produces. Thus these three factors consider being mandatory for an intelligent sensor: A sensing element that measures one or more physical parameters (essentially the traditional sensor weve been discussing), A computational element that analyzes the measurements made by the sensing element, and A communication interface to the outside world that allows the device to exchange information with other components in a larger system. Its the last two elements that really distinguish intelligent sensors from their more common standard sensor relatives because they provide the abilities to turn data directly into information, to use that information locally, and to communicate it to other elements in the system. 2.3 Types of Intelligent Sensors Intelligent sensors are chosen depending on the object, application, precision system, environment of use and cost etc. In such cases consideration must be given as to what is an appropriate evaluation standard. This question involves a multi-dimensional criterion and is usually very difficult. The evaluation standard directly reflects the sense of value itself applied in the design and manufacture of the target system. This must therefore be firmly settled at the system design stage. In sensor selection, the first matter to be considered is determination of the subject of measurement. The second matter to be decided on is the required precision and dynamic range. The third is ease of use, cost, delivery time etc., and ease of maintenance in actual use and compatibility with other sensors in the system. The type of sensor should be matched to such requirements at the design stage. Sensors are usually classified by the subject of measurement and the principle of sensing action. 2.3.1 Classification Based on Type of Input In this, the sensor is classified in accordance with the physical phenomenon that is needed to be detected and the subject of measurement. Some of the examples include voltage, current, displacement and pressure. A list of sensors and their categories are mentioned in the following table. Category Type Dynamic Quantity Flow rate, Pressure, force, tension Speed, acceleration Sound, vibration Distortion, direction proximity Optical Quantities Light (infra red, visible light or radiation) Electromagnetic Quantities Current, voltage, frequency, phase, vibration, magnetism Quantity of Energy or Heat Temperature, humidity, dew point Chemical Quantities Analytic sensors, gas, odour, concentration, pH, ions Sensory Quantities or Biological Quantities Touch, vision, smell Table 2.3.1: Sensed items Classified in accordance with subject of measurement. 2.3.2 Classification Based on Type of Output In an intelligent sensor, it is often necessary to process in an integrated manner the information from several sensors or from a single sensor over a given time range. A computer of appropriate level is employed for such purposes in practically y all cases. For coupling to the computer when constructing an intelligent sensor system, a method with a large degree of freedom is therefore appropriate. It is also necessary to pay careful attention to the type of physical quantity carrying the output information to the sensor, and to the information description format of this physical quantity or dynamic quantity, and for the description format an analog, digital or encoded method etc., might be used. Although any physical quantities could be used as output signal, electrical quantities such as voltage are more convenient for data input to a computer. The format of the output signal can be analog or digital. For convenience in data input to the computer, it is preferable if the output signal of the sensor itself is in the form of a digital electrical signal. In such cases, a suitable means of signal conversion must be provided to input the data from the sensor to the computer 2.3.3 Classification Based on Accuracy When a sensor system is constructed, the accuracy of the sensors employed is a critical factor. Usually sensor accuracy is expressed as the minimum detectable quantity. This is determined by the sensitivity of the sensor and the internally generated noise of the sensor itself. Higher sensitivity and lower internal noise level imply greater accuracy. Generally for commercially available sensors the cost of the sensor is determined by the accuracy which it is required to have. If no commercial sensor can be found with the necessary accuracy, a custom product must be used, which will increase the costs. For ordinary applications an accuracy of about 0.1% is sufficient. Such sensors can easily be selected from commercially available models. Dynamic range (full scale deflection/minimum detectable quantity) has practically the same meaning as accuracy, and is expressed in decibel units. For example a dynamic range of 60dB indicates that the full scale deflection is 103 times the minimum detectable quantity. That is, a dynamic range of 60dB is equivalent to 0.1% accuracy. In conventional sensors, linearity of output was regarded as quite important. However, in intelligent sensor technology the final stage is normally data processing by computer, so output linearity is not a particular problem. Any sensor providing a reproducible relationship of input and output signal can be used in an intelligent sensor system. Chapter 3 3.1 Sensor selection The function of a sensor is to receive some action from a single phenomenon of the subject of measurement and to convert this to another physical phenomenon that can be more easily handled. The phenomenon constituting the subject of measurement is called the input signal, and the phenomenon after conversion is called the output signal. The ratio of the output signal to the input signal is called the transmittance or gain. Since the first function of a sensor is to convert changes in the subject of measurement to a physical phenomenon that can be more easily handled, i.e. its function consists in primary conversion, its conversion efficiency, or the degree of difficulty in delivering the output signal to the transducer constituting the next stage is of secondary importance The first point to which attention must be paid in sensor selection is to preserve as far as possible the information of the input signal. This is equivalent to preventing lowering of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, if the SNR of the input signal is 60 dB, a sensor of dynamic range less than 60 dB should not be used. In order to detect changes in the quantity being measured as faithfully as possible, a sensor is required to have the following properties. Non-interference. This means that its output should not be changed by factors other than changes in the subject of measurement. Conversion satisfying this condition is called direct measurement. Conversion wherein the measurement quantity is found by calculation from output signals determined under the influence of several input signals is called indirect measurement. High sensitivity. The amount of change of the output signal that is produced by a change of unit amount of the input quantity being measured, i.e. the gain, should be as large as possible. Small measurement pressure. This means that the sensor should not disturb the physical conditions of the subject of measurement. From this point of view, modulation conversion offers more freedom than direct-acting conversion. High speed. The sensor should have sufficiently high speed of reaction to track the maximum anticipated rate of variation of the measured quantity. Low noise. The noise generated by the sensor itself should be as little as possible. Robustness. The output signal must be at least more robust than the quantity being measured, and be easier to handle. Robustness means resistance to environmental changes and/or noise. In general, phenomena of large energy are more resistant to external disturbance such as noise than are phenomena of smaller energy, they are easier to handle, and so have better robustness. If a sensor can be obtained that satisfies all these conditions, there is no problem. However, in practice, one can scarcely expect to obtain a sensor satisfying all these conditions. In such cases, it is necessary to combine the sensor with a suitable compensation mechanism, or to compensate the transducer of the secondary converter. Progress in IC manufacturing technology has made it possible to integrate various sensor functions. With the progressive shift from mainframes to minicomputers and hence to microcomputers, control systems have changed from centralized processing systems to distributed processing systems. Sensor technology has also benefited from such progress in IC manufacturing technology, with the result that systems whereby information from several sensors is combined and processed have changed from centralized systems to dispersed systems. Specifically, attempts are being made to use silicon-integrated sensors in a role combining primary data processing and input in systems that measure and process two-dimensional information such as picture information. This is a natural application of silicon precision working technology and digital circuit technology, which have been greatly advanced by introduction of VLSI manufacturing technology. Three-dimensional integrated circuits for recognizing letter patterns and odour sensors, etc., are examples of this. Such sensor systems can be called perfectly intelligent sensors in that they themselves have a certain data processing capability. It is characteristic of such sensors to combine several sensor inputs and to include a microprocessor that performs data processing. Their output signal is not a simple conversion of the input signal, but rather an abstract quantity obtained by some reorganization and combination of input signals from several sensors. This type of signal conversion is now often performed by a distributed processing mechanism, in which microprocessors are used to carry out the data processing that was previously performed by a centralized computer system having a large number of interfaces to individual sensors. However, the miniaturization obtained by application of integrated circuit techniques brings about an increase in the flexibility of coupling between elements. This has a substantial effect. Sensors of this type constitute a new technology that is at present being researched and developed. Although further progress can be expected, the overall picture cannot be predicted at the present time. Technically, practically free combinations of sensors can be implemented with the object of so-called indirect measurement, in which the signals from several individual sensors that were conventionally present are collected and used as the basis for a new output signal. In many aspects, new ideas are required concerning determination of the object of measurement, i.e. which measured quantities are to be selected, determination of the individual functions to achieve this, and the construction of the framework to organize these as a system. 3.2 Structure of an Intelligent Sensor The rapidity of development in microelectronics has had a profound effect on the whole of instrumentation science, and it has blurred some of the conceptual boundaries which once seemed so firm. In the present context the boundary between sensors and instruments is particularly uncertain. Processes which were once confined to a large electronic instrument are now available within the housing of a compact sensor, and it is some of these processes which we discuss later in this chapter. An instrument in our context is a system which is designed primarily to act as a free standing device for performing a particular set of measurements; the provision of communications facilities is of secondary importance. A sensor is a system which is designed primarily to serve a host system and without its communication channel it cannot serve its purpose. Nevertheless, the structures and processes used within either device, be they hardware or software, are similar. The range of disciplines which arc brought together in intelligent sensor system design is considerable, and the designer of such systems has to become something of a polymath. This was one of the problems in the early days of computer-aided measurement and there was some resistance from the backwoodsmen who practiced the art of measurement. 3.2.1 Elements of Intelligent Sensors The intelligent sensor is an example of a system, and in it we can identify a number of sub-systems whose functions are clearly distinguished from each other. The principal sub-systems within an intelligent sensor are: A primary sensing element Excitation Control Amplification (Possibly variable gain) Analogue filtering Data conversion Compensation Digital Information Processing Digital Communication Processing The figure illustrates the way in which these sub-systems relate to each other. Some of the realizations of intelligent sensors, particularly the earlier ones, may incorporate only some of these elements. The primary sensing element has an obvious fundamental importance. It is more than simply the familiar traditional sensor incorporated into a more up-to-date system. Not only are new materials and mechanisms becoming available for exploitation, but some of those that have been long known yet discarded because of various difficulties of behaviour may now be reconsidered in the light of the presence of intelligence to cope with these difficul ­ties. Excitation control can take a variety of forms depending on the circumstances. Some sensors, such as the thermocouple, convert energy directly from one form to another without the need for additional excitation. Others may require fairly elaborate forms of supply. It may be alternating or pulsed for subsequent coherent or phase-sensitive detection. In some circumstances it may be necessary to provide extremely stable supplies to the sensing element, while in others it may be necessary for those supplies to form part of a control loop to maintain the operating condition of the clement at some desired optimum. While this aspect may not be thought fundamental to intelligent sensors there is a largely unexplored range of possibilities for combining it with digital processing to produce novel instrumentation techniques. Amplification of the electrical output of the primary sensing element is almost invariably a requirement. This can pose design problems where high gain is needed. Noise is a particular hazard, and a circumstance unique to the intelligent form of sensor is the presence of digital buses carrying signals with sharp transitions. For this reason circuit layout is a particularly important part of the design process. Analogue filtering is required at minimum to obviate aliasing effects in the conversion stage, but it is also attractive where digital filtering would lake up too much of the real-time processing power available. Data conversion is the stage of transition between the continuous real world and the discrete internal world of the digital processor. It is important to bear in mind that the process of analogue to digital conversion is a non-linear one and represents a potentially gross distortion of the incoming information. It is important, however, for the intelligent sensor designer always to remember that this corruption is present, and in certain circumstances it can assume dominating importance. Such circumstances would include the case where the conversion process is part of a control loop or where some sort of auto-ranging, overt or covert, is built in to the operational program. Compensation is an inevitable part of the intelligent sensor. The operating point of the sensors may change due to various reasons. One of them is temperature. So an intelligent sensor must have an inbuilt compensation setup to bring the operating point back to its standard set stage. Information processing is, of course, unique to the intelligent form of sensor. There is some overlap between compensation and information processing, but there are also significant areas on independence. An important aspect is the condensation of information, which is necessary to preserve the two most precious resources of the industrial measurement system, the information bus and the central processor. A prime example of data condensa ­tion occurs in the Doppler velocimctcr in which a substantial quantity of informa ­tion is reduced to a single number representing the velocity. Sensor compensation will in general require the processi