In their search for smaller telecommunication devices, integrated circuit components, electronic counter measure warfare systems, and various computer components, the electrical engineer has created a plethora of new tools that the analytical chemist can find useful as analytical sensors. Surface acoustic wave sensors are ideal for vapor detection and polymer testing, poly(vinylidene fluoride) piezoelectric and pyroelectric films create a new class of biosensors, and magnetostrictive materials are useful photoacoustic detectors. Fibre-optic waveguides serve as thermal sensors in biological and catalytic environments, and it is interesting to consider their physical and electronic configuration for intrinsic optical sensor applications. Light sensitive linear silicon photodiode arrays allow construction of a Fourier transform spectrometer in which the output of a Michelson interferometer is dispersed across the array. Finally, microcomputers and digital and analog signal processing chips offer ways to compress the resulting data by Fourier and Hadamard transform techniques. The purpose of this lecture is to explore the vocabulary and phenomenology of the area.