Overview of Spintronic Sensors, Internet of Things, and Smart Living

Smart living is a trending lifestyle that envisions lower energy consumption, sound public services, and better quality of life for human being. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a compelling platform connecting various sensors around us to the Internet, providing great opportunities for the realization of smart living. Spintronic sensors with superb measuring ability and multiple unique advantages can be an important piece of cornerstone for IoT. In this review, we discuss successful applications of spintronic sensors in electrical current sensing, transmission and distribution lines monitoring, vehicle detection, and biodetection. Traditional monitoring systems with limited sensors and wired communication can merely collect fragmented data in the application domains. In this paper, the wireless spintronic sensor networks (WSSNs) will be proposed and illustrated to provide pervasive monitoring systems, which facilitate the intelligent surveillance and management over building, power grid, transport, and healthcare. The database of collected information will be of great use to the policy making in public services and city planning. This work provides insights for realizing smart living through the integration of IoT with spintronic sensor technology.