#summary Role and functions of sensors

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== What is the Sensor ==

No single agreed answer.

Certain:
  * it has inputs from the world external to brain - e.g. gets rainbow colors via eye
  * it has outputs connected to brain internals, providing the only inputs for its activity, including cases when sense generated mind activity which, in turn, generated another mind activity
  * it generally has receptors and nerve system to transfer information and control receptors, in other words nerve system adopts (models) received sensor data, which can be named a sort of processing
  * if examine saccades in vision (3 times per second) , we can state that sensors capture data from time to time, with quite different low-level images, and sleep in between capture actions (previous image neural activations are cleared); capture sequence can be quite different but reflects high-level world picture - thus decreasing a number of possible objects

Uncertain:
  * senses of own body - e.g. pain - can we say it is performed by sensors?
  * functions - what is the nature of processing inside sensor? Frog from one research has unconditonal reflexes inborn in the eye
  * we know that after eye surface there is eye nerve, connected to mind internals. Where the eye sensor boundaries? Does eye include eye nerve or it is part of mind?
  * do we treat sensor as part of mind, or it is external to the mind?
  * possible major mind functions, related to sensors are - capture, recognition, generalization, association, feedback (e.g. consider eye contact) - but what are own functions of sensors?
  * consider child reading book by letters and adult human reading text by words or even by sentenses; adult can read word by both letters and words, while child can only by letters. How it occurs?

== Finally for the project purposes ==

  * sensor captures set of properties of external (to aHuman) world (external properties)
  * sensor captures properties from certain area of external world (capture area)
  * capture area can be changed up to some limits (current/maximum capture area)
  * sensor can capture only subset of its properties (capture resolution)
  * the more capture area, the less sensor resolution
  * sensor has control state managed by mind
  * control state defines current capture area and capture resolution
  * control state is exposed to external world (external properties of aHuman)
  * sensor works as active part, not by request, generating inbound stream of data
  * sensor does not perform recognition, generalization and association
  * sensor uses certain physical media to implement capture and feedback
  * sensor can be either polling, when capture occurs as a regular event, or event-driven, when capture occurs by changes of external world properties

== Sensor Model ==

http://usvn.ahuman.org/svn/ahwiki/images/wiki/research/sensor-model.jpg