Stock intake to Short intake, Whats all the sensor crap?

[AZT]

Ok so today I headed out and popped the hood on the 91 eclipse. The idea was to take off the stock air intake and put on an aftermarket one with cone filter. I take the canister off and the filter out and theres all this crap that is inside the filter, I have no clue what it is or does but it eventually goes back to the one plug that goes out of the back of the stock air filter housing. Obvously, if I switched to the intake I was going to use, all that crap would go bye bye. so, questions, first, what is all that electronic stuff insifde the filter for? and second, how can i put on an aftermarket intake? is all that needed? or can it just be taken out? Id assume if Mitsu put it there it serves some purpose.