Sensitivere

Sensitivere is a proposed sensor-performance metric intended to quantify the dynamic responsiveness of a sensor to small changes in its input stimulus. It is defined as the ratio of the relative change in the sensor's output to the relative change in the stimulus, typically evaluated in a defined operating region and adjusted for baseline offset and measurement noise. The metric is designed to be dimensionless and comparable across different sensor types and scales.

Measurement and interpretation: To compute sensitivere, an experiment is conducted with controlled small-signal perturbations around a nominal stimulus. The sensor output is recorded, the baseline offset is removed, and the slope of output versus stimulus is estimated in the linear region. The result is then normalized by the noise floor or the standard deviation of the output, yielding a stable index that reflects both sensitivity and robustness to noise.

Applications: In research and industry, sensitivere can help compare accelerometers, photodetectors, biosensors, and environmental sensors under similar test conditions. It is particularly useful for assessing performance in low-signal regimes or where nonlinearities complicate simple sensitivity measures.

Limitations and status: Sensitivere is not yet standardized; values depend on the test protocol, stimulus range, temperature, and device aging. Practitioners often report multiple metrics together, including linearity, response time, and signal-to-noise ratio, to provide a full performance profile.

Related terms: sensitivity, response time, linearity, dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio.