We live in an era of incessant and accelerating change, driven by demographic, social and economic evolution. Every day more and more of us consume the planet's limited natural resources. Our impact on the planet is increasing through urbanization, energy use, waste production and so on, and this impact is not without consequences. Pollution levels are increasing in our environment, with corresponding effects on our health and well-being. From smog clouds in cities to polluted drinking water, to simply not having enough peace to sleep well at night, human activity has a huge impact on us and our planet. Big changes to the way we work and live over the last century mean we also live much more sedentary lifestyles. This has resulted in growing public health problems, such as obesity, atherosclerosis, cancer, chronic liver disease, and other lifestyle diseases. Increasing life expectancy places increased pressure on our healthcare systems as the world's population continues to age. Governments are forced to cut programs such as home health care to reduce rising costs. The current model is simply not adaptable to the future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay We must also shift our fundamental approach to healthcare from a reactive model to a wellness-oriented model. The goal is to keep people healthy for as long as possible with the least cost to the system. It is important to provide people with useful information about their health and the factors that influence it, positively or negatively. Systems that provide easy access to data on exercise, diet, environmental environment, etc., along with intelligent data processing and presentation, are critical to supporting sustainable behavioral change. It is a world full of challenges and in need of solutions to address major global issues. Technologies like sensors can provide us with the tools to help address many of the significant global challenges of the 21st century. Sensors play a vital role in numerous modern industrial applications, including food processing and the daily monitoring of activities such as transportation, air quality, therapeutic medical services and many others. While sensors have been around for more than a century, modern sensors with integrated information and communications technology (ICT) capabilities – smart sensors – have been around for just over three decades. Significant advances have been made in computing capabilities, storage, power management, and a variety of form factors, connectivity options, and software development environments. These advances have occurred alongside a significant evolution in sensing capabilities. We have seen the emergence of biosensors that are now found in a variety of consumer products, such as pregnancy, cholesterol, allergy and fertility tests. The development and rapid commercialization of low-cost microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, such as 3D accelerometer sensors, features LCDs for their integration into a wide range of devices spanning from automobiles to smartphones. Affordable semiconductor sensors have catalyzed new areas of environmental sensing platforms, such as those for monitoring home air quality. The vast array of low-cost sensors has fostered the emergence of pervasive sensing. Sensors and sensor networks can now beworn or integrated into our living environment or even into our clothes with minimal effect on our daily lives. Data from these sensors promises to support new proactive health paradigms with early detection of potential problems, such as the risk of heart disease (elevated cholesterol levels), liver disease (elevated levels of bilirubin in the urine), anemia (elevated levels of of ferritin in the blood) and so on. Sensors are increasingly used to monitor daily activities, such as exercise with immediate access to performance through smartphones. The relationship between our well-being and our environmental environment is undergoing significant changes. Sensor technologies now provide ordinary citizens with information on air and water quality and other environmental issues, such as noise pollution. Sharing and socializing this data online supports the evolving concepts of citizen-LCD sensing. As people contribute their data online, crowdsourced maps of metrics such as air quality can be generated and shared over large geographic areas. While all of these advances are noteworthy and contribute significantly and positively to the lives of many people, a note of caution is also warranted. As Richard Feynman points out, reality must take precedence over public relations. Sensors should not be considered a panacea for all our problems. Instead, they should be treated as extremely useful tools. As always, the right job requires the right tool, and like any complex tool, sensors and sensor systems have their strengths and weaknesses. Careful matching of the sensor and its operational characteristics to the use case of interest is critical. A Brief History of Sensors The emergence of the first thermostat in 1883 is considered by some to be the first modern sensor. Since then, countless forms of sensors have emerged, based on a variety of principles. The first sensors were simple devices, which measured a quantity of interest and produced some form of mechanical, electrical, or optical output signal. In the last decade or so alone, computing, pervasive communications, web connectivity, smart mobile devices, and cloud integration have dramatically increased sensor capabilities. Detection in healthcare has, until recently, been limited primarily to use in hospitals, with limited adoption outside of this environment. Developments in both technology and care models are supporting adoption by patients, home care providers, public authorities and individuals looking to proactively manage their health and wellbeing. For example, the biosensor concept was first proposed by Clarke and Lyons in 1962. The glucose biosensor concept was brought into commercial reality in 1975 by the Yellow Springs Instrument Company. In the years since, biosensors have evolved rapidly to the point where they are a multibillion-dollar industry. They are now found in a wide variety of over-the-counter healthcare applications, such as those for home AIDS or pregnancy testing and allergy detection, to name just a few. More recently, biosensors are being used in the environmental sector for applications that, for example, detect bacteria, pesticides and heavy metals in water samples. From the development of MEMS-based LCD sensors to the availability of small, accurate sensors at an affordable price, this has made it possible to integrate them into a wide variety of devices, from sports watches to consumer electronics to automobiles. MEMS have become an element.