R&D Credit Opportunity for Smart Sensors
In their May 2011 Research Report, several
authors at the McKinsey Global Institute project that the next
economic wave of the future, Big Data, is going to be driven
by, and in turn will drive, the increasing volume and detail
of information captured by enterprises, the rise of
multimedia, social media, and the "Internet of Things". Many
industry analysts emphasize the importance of high bandwidth,
creative capital, and advanced analytics that operate in real
time. In order to integrate these three pillars, economic
actors (i.e., governments and private enterprises) will need
to draw on recent innovations in the field of smart sensors.
Smart sensors are different from the passive sensors of the
20th century in that they are able to process information in
order to pick up on patterns and then use the data to control
systematic operations, whether in one's home, at a
manufacturing plant, or inside the human body.
To date, four industries
that have been implementing smart sensors technologies in
order to improve their operational efficiency and capacity
include: 1) Oceanographic and meteorological services; 2) The
smart grid; 3) Health sciences (nanobots); 4) and the
"Internet of Things." Companies making investments in
researching and developing improved smart sensor technologies
and applications stand a great chance of qualifying for the
federal R & D tax credit.
The Federal Research
and Development Tax Credit
The Research and Development Tax
Credit, federally enacted in 1981, allows a credit of up to
13% of eligible spending for new and improved products and
processes. Qualified research must meet the following four
criteria:
- New or improved product,
processes, or software
- Technological in nature
- Elimination of uncertainty
- Process of experimentation
Eligible costs include
employee wages, cost of supplies, cost of testing, contract
research expenses, and certain costs associated with obtaining
a patent.
Smart Sensor
Applications
Smart sensor systems are typically
composed of numerous autonomous sensors that work in
conjunction by using wireless communication devices to
communicate information to each other and a central processor.
Depending on the particular application in which the sensor
network is being employed, the central processor's role is to
analyze the data being transmitted to it in order to find and
use patterns to make the underlying operations of the system
more efficient or execute self-organizing tasks. Following is
a discussion of the role of smart sensors in the four leading
industries.
Climate/Oceanographic/Meteorology
Networks of smart sensors are able to
gather information needed by "smart environments," meaning
that scientists researching oceanography or its related fields
of meteorology and climatology will be able to use such
networks to isolate individual causes in the myriad factors
that predict weather patterns in the near future. When
operating as part of an overarching network, smart sensors are
capable of processing the enormous amounts of data required by
oceanographic observation as long as the architecture of the
sensor network is competent for application in a marine
environment. One of the major advantages of using smart
sensors in this field is that sensory data comes from multiple
sensors of different modalities in distributed locations. The
smart environment needs information about its surroundings as
well as about its internal workings; this is captured in
biological systems . A marine sensor network will need to be
both flexible and scalable in its hardware and software
elements.
Future innovation in the
field of marine smart sensor networking will need to focus on
the adaptation of existing smart sensor technology to the
marine environment. Researchers will also need to discover
methods for eliminating data heterogeneity, which has
heretofore handicapped oceanographers ability to develop a
consistent methodology for conducting their studies . In other
words, marine smart sensors of the future will need to be
easily integrated.
Smart Grid Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
One of the most
immediately attainable applications of smart sensor
technologies is the smart grid and its related field of smart
metering for monitoring energy use. The smart grid is a
digitally enabled electrical grid capable of gathering,
distributing, and acting on information about the behavior of
all participants (energy suppliers and end users) in order to
improve the efficiency, importance, reliability, economics,
and sustainability of electricity services. Smart buildings
are a field closely linked to smart grids. Smart buildings
rely on a set of technologies that enhance energy-efficiency
and user comfort as well as the monitoring and safety of the
buildings. Technologies include new, efficient building
materials as well as information and communication
technologies (ICTs). There are advanced ICT applications that
can be used to execute a wide range of tasks.
In the smart building
context, smart sensors can be used in building management
systems which monitor heating, lighting and ventilation,
software packages which automatically switch off devices such
as computers and monitors when offices are empty, and security
and access systems . These ICT systems can be both found at
the household and office level.
The third-generation of
smart building systems, which are now available to building
owners, are capable of learning from the building and adapting
their monitoring and controlling functions . While this most
recent generation of technology is currently at an early stage
of development, the proliferation of smart grid
interconnection capability along with increased market focus
on energy efficiency makes for a fertile research and
development environment.
Nanobots/Health
Sciences
Smart sensors have been used in the
healthcare sector in a wide variety of ways for many years;
devices like heart rate monitors that are now everyday items
are one form of smart sensors, but cutting-edge technologies
like nanobots are growing in importance . By tele-monitoring
patients' state of health, tracking and monitoring both
doctors' and patients' movements, and recording the
administration of medicinal drugs, smart sensors are enabling
doctors and researchers to respond to medical problems as they
happen while simultaneously accumulating a more sophisticated
body of research. Going one step further, however, nanobots
are robotic machine that are at or close to the scale of a
nanometer and are capable of acting at the molecular level
inside the human body. A properly programmed nanobot is
theoretically capable of instantaneously sensing, diagnosing,
and treating ailments within the body. Yet nanobots are very
much in the research and development stage and researchers who
figure out how to create nanobots will be able to use the
technology not only in the health science field, but also for
toxic chemical clean-ups or other disaster scenarios where
danger to human life is posed.
Consumer Technologies/"The
Internet of Things"
Google's Lab X has been making headlines
recently for its highly secretive research that it is
conducting into the interconnectivity of all household
appliances . The moniker, "Internet of Things," conveys an
emerging trend wherein consumers will no longer have to access
the internet via their computer or handheld device to do
things like order more groceries because their smart
refrigerator will sense when they are running low on various
items and will automatically order more of what's needed. This
trend is made possible because of smart sensor technology.
Conclusion: Research
and Development Opportunities within the Smart Sensor Market
The challenges of creating new and
improved smart sensors over the coming years present great
opportunities for companies in the related industries. The
common challenges when it comes to sensing data input,
regardless of the industry, all boil down to improved
accuracy, speed, and responsiveness of the systems to rapidly
changing stimuli.
