What is sensitivity?
Answer:
*Sensitivity can be defined as a measure of the minimum temperature difference that can be detected or viewed. A system with high sensitivity can detect very small temperature differences. This results in easy-to-interpret imagery and good performance through poor weather or in cold conditions. A camera's sensitivity is driven by the size of the optics, background conditions, operating temperature and integration time.
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*Sensitivity, or recall rate, is a statistical measure of how well a binary classification test correctly identifies a condition, whether this be medical screening tests picking up on a disease, or quality control in factories deciding if a new product is good enough to be sold.
The results of the screening test are compared to some absolute (Gold standard); for example, for a medical test to determine if a person has a certain disease, the sensitivity to the disease is the probability that if the person has the disease, the test will be positive.
The sensitivity is the proportion of true positives of all diseased cases in the population. It is a parameter of the test.
High sensitivity is required when early diagnosis and treatment is beneficial, and when the disease is infectious.
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Sensitivity is an absolute quantity; resolution is a relative quantity. Sensitivity describes the smallest absolute amount of change that can be detected by a measurement, often expressed in terms of millivolts, microhms, or tenths of a degree.
Sensitivity should not be confused with accuracy—they are entirely different parameters. For example, a device specified with 1-mV sensitivity may only be accurate to 10 mV with an applied input of 10 V. Yet if the 10-V input signal changed by 1 mV, the device still could observe the difference. Sensitivity sometimes can be improved by averaging.
The actual sensitivity is as much a function of the measurement device as it is the environment in which the measurement is being made. A device may be perfectly capable of making measurements with 1-µV sensitivity. But if the cabling is not adequately shielded and void of thermally generated voltages, then achieving 1-µV sensitivity will be impossible.
The easiest way to determine the sensitivity of a device is to look at its performance on its lowest range. The noise specification on this range will largely dictate the device’s sensitivity. Other subtle factors, such as short-term input offset-voltage drift and the quality of the input connectors, will influence it as well. Often the test setup (interconnects, shielding) limits the ultimate sensitivity unless appropriate care is taken.
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