This topic emerged through a screening of emerging issues in science, technology and society in the context of the FET CSA OBSERVE.

http://www.horizon-observatory.eu/radar-en/index.php

The big picture

Novel developments in sensing are mainly driven by the use of new materials and new concepts. This includes social innovations such as citizen driven measuring and monitoring initiatives. At the same time urgent requirements such as measurement of ocean acidification are calling for novel solutions. The following elements emerged:

New sensors to measure ocean acidification

Ocean acidification describes the decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans due to the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. New sensors for data gathering are being developed. XPRIZE has awarded a large sum for development of sensors for acidification. Source: Scientific American;

Intelligent combination of sensor-data replaces traditional technologies for authorization, monitoring and observation

Instead of highly visible and electricity-consuming video cameras or pattern recognition computers, sensors tracking motion, noise, temperature, weight, etc. can be used. This requires that the sensors are connected to each other and that their data is being combined in an intelligent way. New network setups and algorithms will be developed which will enable these sensor networks to identify persons, activities and objects with more precision and much less power-consumption than traditional methods. Source: FET Projects

Bio-sensors - Using plants as environmental sensors and connecting them to sensor networks

Plants can be used as sensors to monitor environmental parameters, such as temperature, humidity, air quality, etc. In the future, the sensing information of plants may be accessed by a technical device and the signal will be transferred over a wireless net-work. This way, many new applications become possible as data will be available to monitor any environment of interest. Source: FET Projects;

Emerging research front: Synthesis of copolymers by direct arylation polycondensation

Copolymers are promising as basis for organic semiconductors with favourable characteristics e.g. for solar cells light-emitting diodes and transistors, sensors, and displays. Direct arylation represents an economically attractive and ecologically benign alternative to the traditional methodologies for synthesizing these polymers. Source: Thomson Reuters Research Fronts 2014;

Motion microscope

Structural information about the inner characteristics of an object has been derived from an extremely precise video. This technology allows contactless, non invasive analysis („a motion microscope“ amplification of tiny motions). Source: TED;

Distributed collaboration platforms

Around the world citizens self-organize to research and address certain challenges such as energy-supply, waste-disposal, weather- and threat-monitoring or bee dying. These "peer2peer" initiatives need platforms to safely collect, manage and process data and resources in a distributed and collaborative way. At the same time technical solutions that allow orchestrating large numbers of distributed specialists at short notice and thereby enable new collaboration and service models such as Application Program Interfaces (API) and blockchain technology are receiving a lot of attention. Source: Aggregation of several;