Here we give context to the special issue “Spectral Imaging at the Microscale and Beyond” in Sensors. We start with an introduction and motivation for the need for spectral imaging and then present important definitions and background concepts. Following this, we review new developments and applications in environmental monitoring, biomaterials, microfluidics, nanomaterials, healthcare, agriculture and food science, with a special focus on the articles published in the special issue. Some concluding remarks put the presented developments in context vis-à-vis the future of spectral imaging. Full article

Here; we have described and tested a microarray based-method for the screening of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes. This DNA microarray assay is specific and sensitive and can detect dual infections with two dengue virus serotypes and single-serotype infections. Other methodologies may underestimate samples containing more than one serotype. This technology can be used to discriminate between the four DENV serotypes. Single-stranded DNA targets were covalently attached to glass slides and hybridised with specific labelled probes. DENV isolates and dengue samples were used to evaluate microarray performance. Our results demonstrate that the probes hybridized specifically to DENV serotypes; with no detection of unspecific signals. This finding provides evidence that specific probes can effectively identify single and double infections in DENV samples. Full article

The outstanding properties of selected soft magnetic materials make them successful candidates for building high performance sensors. In this paper we present our recent work regarding different sensing technologies based on the coupling of the magnetic properties of soft magnetic materials with their electric or elastic properties. In first place we report the influence on the magneto-impedance response of the thickness of Permalloy films in multilayer-sandwiched structures. An impedance change of 270% was found in the best conditions upon the application of magnetic field, with a low field sensitivity of 140%/Oe. Second, the magneto-elastic resonance of amorphous ribbons is used to demonstrate the possibility of sensitively measuring the viscosity of fluids, aimed to develop an on-line and real-time sensor capable of assessing the state of degradation of lubricant oils in machinery. A novel analysis method is shown to sensitively reveal the changes of the damping parameter of the magnetoelastic oscillations at the resonance as a function of the oil viscosity. Finally, the properties and performance of magneto-electric laminated composites of amorphous magnetic ribbons and piezoelectric polymer films are investigated, demonstrating magnetic field detection capabilities below 2.7 nT. Full article

This paper investigates one eigenvalue decomposition-based source number estimation method, and three information-based source number estimation methods, namely the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Minimum Description Length (MDL) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), and improves BIC as Improved BIC (IBIC) to make it more efficient and easier for calculation. The performances of the abovementioned source number estimation methods are studied comparatively with numerical case studies, which contain a linear superposition case and a both linear superposition and nonlinear modulation mixing case. A test bed with three sound sources is constructed to test the performances of these methods on mechanical systems, and source separation is carried out to validate the effectiveness of the experimental studies. This work can benefit model order selection, complexity analysis of a system, and applications of source separation to mechanical systems for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis purposes. Full article

We present an electrochemical MIP sensor for tamoxifen (TAM)—a nonsteroidal anti-estrogen—which is based on the electropolymerisation of an O-phenylenediamine‒resorcinol mixture directly on the electrode surface in the presence of the template molecule. Up to now only “bulk” MIPs for TAM have been described in literature, which are applied for separation in chromatography columns. Electro-polymerisation of the monomers in the presence of TAM generated a film which completely suppressed the reduction of ferricyanide. Removal of the template gave a markedly increased ferricyanide signal, which was again suppressed after rebinding as expected for filling of the cavities by target binding. The decrease of the ferricyanide peak of the MIP electrode depended linearly on the TAM concentration between 1 and 100 nM. The TAM-imprinted electrode showed a 2.3 times higher recognition of the template molecule itself as compared to its metabolite 4-hydroxytamoxifen and no cross-reactivity with the anticancer drug doxorubucin was found. Measurements at +1.1 V caused a fouling of the electrode surface, whilst pretreatment of TAM with peroxide in presence of HRP generated an oxidation product which was reducible at 0 mV, thus circumventing the polymer formation and electrochemical interferences. Full article

Exchanging too many messages for fault detection will cause not only a degradation of the network quality of service, but also represents a huge burden on the limited energy of sensors. Therefore, we propose an uncertainty-based distributed fault detection through aided judgment of neighbors for wireless sensor networks. The algorithm considers the serious influence of sensing measurement loss and therefore uses Markov decision processes for filling in missing data. Most important of all, fault misjudgments caused by uncertainty conditions are the main drawbacks of traditional distributed fault detection mechanisms. We draw on the experience of evidence fusion rules based on information entropy theory and the degree of disagreement function to increase the accuracy of fault detection. Simulation results demonstrate our algorithm can effectively reduce communication energy overhead due to message exchanges and provide a higher detection accuracy ratio. Full article

This work is motivated by robot-sensor network cooperation techniques where sensor nodes (beacons) are used as landmarks for range-only (RO) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). This paper presents a RO-SLAM scheme that actuates over the measurement gathering process using mechanisms that dynamically modify the rate and variety of measurements that are integrated in the SLAM filter. It includes a measurement gathering module that can be configured to collect direct robot-beacon and inter-beacon measurements with different inter-beacon depth levels and at different rates. It also includes a supervision module that monitors the SLAM performance and dynamically selects the measurement gathering configuration balancing SLAM accuracy and resource consumption. The proposed scheme has been applied to an extended Kalman filter SLAM with auxiliary particle filters for beacon initialization (PF-EKF SLAM) and validated with experiments performed in the CONET Integrated Testbed. It achieved lower map and robot errors (34% and 14%, respectively) than traditional methods with a lower computational burden (16%) and similar beacon energy consumption. Full article

This paper presents a multi-sensor humanoid robotic head for human robot interaction. The design of the robotic head, Muecas, is based on ongoing research on the mechanisms of perception and imitation of human expressions and emotions. These mechanisms allow direct interaction between the robot and its human companion through the different natural language modalities: speech, body language and facial expressions. The robotic head has 12 degrees of freedom, in a human-like configuration, including eyes, eyebrows, mouth and neck, and has been designed and built entirely by IADeX (Engineering, Automation and Design of Extremadura) and RoboLab. A detailed description of its kinematics is provided along with the design of the most complex controllers. Muecas can be directly controlled by FACS (Facial Action Coding System), the de facto standard for facial expression recognition and synthesis. This feature facilitates its use by third party platforms and encourages the development of imitation and of goal-based systems. Imitation systems learn from the user, while goal-based ones use planning techniques to drive the user towards a final desired state. To show the flexibility and reliability of the robotic head, the paper presents a software architecture that is able to detect, recognize, classify and generate facial expressions in real time using FACS. This system has been implemented using the robotics framework, RoboComp, which provides hardware-independent access to the sensors in the head. Finally, the paper presents experimental results showing the real-time functioning of the whole system, including recognition and imitation of human facial expressions. Full article

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is typically diagnosed by physical examination or nerve conduction measurements. With these diagnostics however it is difficult to obtain anatomical information in the carpal tunnel. To further improve the diagnosis of CTS, an attempt using 30 MHz high-frequency ultrasound to noninvasively detect the local anatomical structures and the kinetic trajectory of the median nerve (MN) in the wrist was explored. Measurements were performed on the right wrist of 14 asymptomatic volunteers. The kinetic trajectory of the MN corresponding to flexion (from 0° to 90°) and extension (from 90° to 0°) movements of the fingers were detected by a cross correlation-based motion tracking technique. The average displacements of the MN according to finger movements were measured to be 3.74 and 2.04 mm for male and female subjects, respectively. Moreover, the kinetic trajectory of the MN in both the ulnar-palmar and total directions generally follows a sigmoidal curve tendency. This study has verified that the use of high-frequency ultrasound imaging and a motion tracking technique to sensitively detect the displacement and kinetic trajectory of the MN for the assessment of CTS patients is feasible. Full article

This manuscript describes a new type Ka-band airborne double-antenna microwave radiometer (ADAMR) designed for detecting atmospheric supercooled water content (SCWC). The source of the measurement error is investigated by analyzing the model of the system gain factor and the principle of the auto-gain compensative technique utilized in the radiometer. Then, a multipoint temperature correction method based on the two-point calibration method for this radiometer is proposed. The multipoint temperature correction method can eliminate the effect of changes in environmental temperature by establishing the relationship between the measurement error and the physical temperatures of the temperature-sensitive units. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the correction method, the long-term outdoor temperature experiment is carried out. The multipoint temperature correction equations are obtained by using the least square regression method. The comparison results show that the measuring accuracy of the radiometer can be increased more effectively by using the multipoint temperature correction method. Full article

This paper presents a multimodal system for seamless surveillance of elderly people in their living environment. The system uses simultaneously a wearable sensor network for each individual and premise-embedded sensors specific for each environment. The paper demonstrates the benefits of using complementary information from two types of mobility sensors: visual flow-based image analysis and an accelerometer-based wearable network. The paper provides results for indoor recognition of several elementary poses and outdoor recognition of complex movements. Instead of complete system description, particular attention was drawn to a polar histogram-based method of visual pose recognition, complementary use and synchronization of the data from wearable and premise-embedded networks and an automatic danger detection algorithm driven by two premise- and subject-related databases. The novelty of our approach also consists in feeding the databases with real-life recordings from the subject, and in using the dynamic time-warping algorithm for measurements of distance between actions represented as elementary poses in behavioral records. The main results of testing our method include: 95.5% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the video system, 96.7% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the accelerometer-based system, 98.9% accuracy of elementary pose recognition by the combined accelerometer and video-based system, and 80% accuracy of complex outdoor activity recognition by the accelerometer-based wearable system. Full article

Information technology (IT) is pushing ahead with drastic reforms of modern life for improvement of human welfare. Objects constitute “Information Networks” through smart, self-regulated information gathering that also recognizes and controls current information states in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Information observed from sensor networks in real-time is used to increase quality of life (QoL) in various industries and daily life. One of the key challenges of the WSNs is how to achieve lossless data transmission. Although nowadays sensor nodes have enhanced capacities, it is hard to assure lossless and reliable end-to-end data transmission in WSNs due to the unstable wireless links and low hard ware resources to satisfy high quality of service (QoS) requirements. We propose a node and path traffic prediction model to predict and minimize the congestion. This solution includes prediction of packet generation due to network congestion from both periodic and event data generation. Simulation using NS-2 and Matlab is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution. Full article

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers the opportunity to study biological tissues and processes in a non-disruptive manner. The technique shows promise for the study of the load-bearing performance (consolidation) of articular cartilage and changes in articular cartilage accompanying osteoarthritis. Consolidation of articular cartilage involves the recording of two transient characteristics: the change over time of strain and the hydrostatic excess pore pressure (HEPP). MRI study of cartilage consolidation under mechanical load is limited by difficulties in measuring the HEPP in the presence of the strong magnetic fields associated with the MRI technique. Here we describe the use of MRI to image and characterize bovine articular cartilage deforming under load in an MRI compatible consolidometer while monitoring pressure with a Fabry-Perot interferometer-based fiber-optic pressure transducer. Full article

This paper proposes a space weather forecasting system at geostationary orbit for high-energy electron flux (>2 MeV). The forecasting model involves multiple sensors on multiple satellites. The sensors interconnect and evaluate each other to predict future conditions at geostationary orbit. The proposed forecasting model is constructed using a dynamic relational network for sensor diagnosis and event monitoring. The sensors of the proposed model are located at different positions in space. The satellites for solar monitoring equip with monitoring devices for the interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind speed. The satellites orbit near the Earth monitoring high-energy electron flux. We investigate forecasting for typical two examples by comparing the performance of two models with different numbers of sensors. We demonstrate the prediction by the proposed model against coronal mass ejections and a coronal hole. This paper aims to investigate a possibility of space weather forecasting based on the satellite network with in-situ sensing. Full article

Artworks are a valuable part of the World’s cultural and historical heritage. Conservation and authentication of authorship are important aspects to consider in the protection of cultural patrimony. In this paper we present a novel application of a well-known method based on the phase-shift analysis of an ultrasonic signal, providing an integrated encoding system that enables authentication of the authorship of wooden panel paintings. The method has been evaluated in comparison with optical analysis and shows promising results. The proposed method provides an integrated fingerprint of the artwork, and could be used to enrich the cataloging and protection of artworks. Other advantages that make particularly attractive the proposed technique are its robustness and the use of low-cost sensors. Full article

During the last years, the application of different wireless technologies has been explored in order to enable Internet connectivity from vehicles. In addition, the widespread adoption of smartphones by citizens represents a great opportunity to integrate such nomadic devices inside vehicles in order to provide new and personalized on trip services for passengers. In this paper, a proposal of communication architecture to provide the ubiquitous connectivity needed to enhance the smart train concept is presented and preliminarily tested. It combines an intra-wagon communication system based on nomadic devices connected through a Bluetooth Piconet Network with a highly innovative train-to-ground communication system. In order to validate this communication solution, several tests and simulations have been performed and their results are described in this paper. Full article

This paper presents an improved micro-step voltage-fed actuator for an automobile active grill shutter (AGS) system. A novel structured stepper motor, which contains both the main and auxiliary teeth in the stator, is proposed for the actuator. In a normal permanent magnet (PM) motor coils are generally wound on all the stator teeth, however, in the proposed motor, the winding is only on the main teeth. Because of the absence of coils in the auxiliary teeth, the proposed stepper motor possesses the following advantages: simple structure, lighter weight, smaller volume, and less time consumption. The unique auxiliary poles in the stepper motor supply the flux path to increase the step resolution even without any coils. The characteristics of the proposed stepper motor were investigated using finite element analysis. In particular, the effect of the magnetization distribution of the PM on the motor performance was investigated during the analysis. Cogging torque, which causes noise and vibration issues, was minimized by the tooth-shape optimization. In addition, a micro-step voltage-fed algorithm was implemented for a high-resolution position control. By employing a current close to a sine wave using space vector pulse-width modulation, a high-quality current waveform with a high resolution was obtained. Finally, the proposed prototype was fabricated, and the cogging torque, back-electromotive force, and current characteristics were measured by mounting the prototype on the AGS system. Both the analysis and experimental results validate the performance improvement from the proposed motor and its possible application for the flap control of the AGS system. Full article

In this paper, we propose cooperative spectrum sensing schemes, called decode-and-forward cooperative spectrum sensing (DF-CSS) scheme and amplify-and-forward cooperative spectrum sensing (AF-CSS) scheme, in cognitive radio networks. The main goals and features of the proposed cooperative spectrum sensing schemes are as follows: first, we solve the problem of high demand for bandwidth in a soft decision scheme using in our proposed schemes. Furthermore, the impact of transmission power of relaying users which is determined by the interference constraint on sensing performance of cooperative spectrum sensing schemes is also investigated. Second, we analyze the sensing performance of our proposed cooperative spectrum sensing schemes in terms of detection probability and interference probability, respectively. We take into account the interference caused by secondary user (SU) to primary user (PU) in the case that the transmission power of the relaying users exceeds a predefined interference constraint assigned by the primary user. The simulation results show that in cooperative spectrum sensing schemes the total sensing performance depends not only on the interference tolerance level, but also on the relay protocols used. We also prove that high transmission power of relaying users increases the interference between the secondary networks and the primary network. Full article

Pyroelectric infrared (PIR) sensors are widely used as a presence trigger, but the analog output of PIR sensors depends on several other aspects, including the distance of the body from the PIR sensor, the direction and speed of movement, the body shape and gait. In this paper, we present an empirical study of human movement detection and identification using a set of PIR sensors. We have developed a data collection module having two pairs of PIR sensors orthogonally aligned and modified Fresnel lenses. We have placed three PIR-based modules in a hallway for monitoring people; one module on the ceiling; two modules on opposite walls facing each other. We have collected a data set from eight subjects when walking in three different conditions: two directions (back and forth), three distance intervals (close to one wall sensor, in the middle, close to the other wall sensor) and three speed levels (slow, moderate, fast). We have used two types of feature sets: a raw data set and a reduced feature set composed of amplitude and time to peaks; and passage duration extracted from each PIR sensor. We have performed classification analysis with well-known machine learning algorithms, including instance-based learning and support vector machine. Our findings show that with the raw data set captured from a single PIR sensor of each of the three modules, we could achieve more than 92% accuracy in classifying the direction and speed of movement, the distance interval and identifying subjects. We could also achieve more than 94% accuracy in classifying the direction, speed and distance and identifying subjects using the reduced feature set extracted from two pairs of PIR sensors of each of the three modules. Full article

This study uses the Joule heating effect-generated temperature difference to monitor in real-time and localize both compressive and tensile strains for the polymer substrates used in the roll-to-roll process. A serpentine gold (Au) line was patterned on a polyethylenenaphthalate (PEN) substrate to form the strain sensor based on thermoresistive behavior. This strain sensor was then subjected to either current or voltage to induce the Joule heating effect on the Au resistor. An infrared (IR) detector was used to monitor the strain-induced temperature difference on the Au and PEN surfaces and the minimal detectable bending radius was 0.9 mm with a gauge factor (GF) of 1.46. The proposed design eliminates the judgment ambiguity from conventional resistive strain sensors where resistance is the only physical quantity monitored. This study precisely and successfully indicated the local strain quantitatively and qualitatively with complete simulations and measurements. Full article

A fault diagnosis strategy based on the wayside acoustic monitoring technique is investigated for locomotive bearing fault diagnosis. Inspired by the transient modeling analysis method based on correlation filtering analysis, a so-called Parametric-Mother-Doppler-Wavelet (PMDW) is constructed with six parameters, including a center characteristic frequency and five kinematic model parameters. A Doppler effect eliminator containing a PMDW generator, a correlation filtering analysis module, and a signal resampler is invented to eliminate the Doppler effect embedded in the acoustic signal of the recorded bearing. Through the Doppler effect eliminator, the five kinematic model parameters can be identified based on the signal itself. Then, the signal resampler is applied to eliminate the Doppler effect using the identified parameters. With the ability to detect early bearing faults, the transient model analysis method is employed to detect localized bearing faults after the embedded Doppler effect is eliminated. The effectiveness of the proposed fault diagnosis strategy is verified via simulation studies and applications to diagnose locomotive roller bearing defects. Full article

Background: Sleepiness-at-the-wheel has been identified as a major cause of highway accidents. The aim of our study is identifying the candidate measures for home-based screening of sleep disordered breathing in Taiwanese bus drivers, instead of polysomnography. Methods: Overnight polysomnography accompanied with simultaneous measurements of alternative screening devices (pulse oximetry, ApneaLink, and Actigraphy), heart rate variability, wake-up systolic blood pressure and questionnaires were completed by 151 eligible participants who were long-haul bus drivers with a duty period of more than 12 h a day and duty shifting. Results: 63.6% of professional bus drivers were diagnosed as having sleep disordered breathing and had a higher body mass index, neck circumference, systolic blood pressure, arousal index and desaturation index than those professional bus drivers without evidence of sleep disordered breathing. Simple home-based candidate measures: (1) Pulse oximetry, oxygen-desaturation indices by ≥3% and 4% (r = 0.87~0.92); (2) Pulse oximetry, pulse-rising indices by ≥7% and 8% from a baseline (r = 0.61~0.89); and (3) ApneaLink airflow detection, apnea-hypopnea indices (r = 0.70~0.70), based on recording-time or Actigraphy-corrected total sleep time were all significantly correlated with, and had high agreement with, corresponding polysomnographic apnea-hypopnea indices [(1) 94.5%~96.6%, (2) 93.8%~97.2%, (3) 91.1%~91.3%, respectively]. Conversely, no validities of SDB screening were found in the multi-variables apnea prediction questionnaire, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, night-sleep heart rate variability, wake-up systolic blood pressure and anthropometric variables. Conclusions: The indices of pulse oximetry and apnea flow detection are eligible criteria for home-based screening of sleep disordered breathing, specifically for professional drivers. Full article

Solid-state nanopores are emerging as a valuable tool for the detection and characterization of individual biomolecules. Central to their success is the realization of fabrication strategies that are both rapid and flexible in their ability to achieve diverse device dimensions. In this paper, we demonstrate the membrane thickness dependence of solid-state nanopore formation with a focused helium ion beam. We vary membrane thickness in situ and show that the rate of pore expansion follows a reproducible trend under all investigated membrane conditions. We show that this trend shifts to lower ion dose for thin membranes in a manner that can be described quantitatively, allowing devices of arbitrary dimension to be realized. Finally, we demonstrate that thin, small-diameter nanopores formed with our approach can be utilized for high signal-to-noise ratio resistive pulse sensing of DNA. Full article

In this paper, a smoothing algorithm for compensating inertial sensor saturation is proposed. The sensor saturation happens when a sensor measures a value that is larger than its dynamic range. This can lead to a considerable accumulated error. To compensate the lost information in saturated sensor data, we propose a smoothing algorithm in which the saturation compensation is formulated as an optimization problem. Based on a standard smoothing algorithm with zero velocity intervals, two saturation estimation methods were proposed. Simulation and experiments prove that the proposed methods are effective in compensating the sensor saturation. Full article

In the midst of the rapid developments in electronic instruments and remote sensing technologies, airborne three-line array sensors and their applications are being widely promoted and plentiful research related to data processing and high precision geo-referencing technologies is under way. The exterior orientation parameters (EOPs), which are measured by the integrated positioning and orientation system (POS) of airborne three-line sensors, however, have inevitable systematic errors, so the level of precision of direct geo-referencing is not sufficiently accurate for surveying and mapping applications. Consequently, a few ground control points are necessary to refine the exterior orientation parameters, and this paper will discuss bundle block adjustment models based on the systematic error compensation and the orientation image, considering the principle of an image sensor and the characteristics of the integrated POS. Unlike the models available in the literature, which mainly use a quaternion to represent the rotation matrix of exterior orientation, three rotation angles are directly used in order to effectively model and eliminate the systematic errors of the POS observations. Very good experimental results have been achieved with several real datasets that verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed adjustment models. Full article

A novel amperometric biosensor for the determination of Al(III) based on the inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase has been developed. The immobilization of the enzyme was performed on screen-printed carbon electrodes modified with gold nanoparticles. The oxidation signal of acetylthiocholine iodide enzyme substrate was affected by the presence of Al(III) ions leading to a decrease in the amperometric current. The developed system has a detection limit of 2.1 ± 0.1 μM for Al(III). The reproducibility of the method is 8.1% (n = 4). Main interferences include Mo(VI), W(VI) and Hg(II) ions. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of Al(III) in spiked tap water . The analysis of a certified standard reference material was also carried out. Both results agree with the certified values considering the respective associated uncertainties. Full article

Nowadays mobile phones include quality photo and video cameras, access to wireless networks and the internet, GPS assistance and other innovative systems. These facilities open them to innovative uses, other than the classical telephonic communication one. Smartphones are a more sophisticated version of classic mobile phones, which have advanced computing power, memory and connectivity. Because fake lithographs are flooding the art market, in this work, we propose a smartphone as simple, robust and efficient sensor for lithograph authentication. When we buy an artwork object, the seller issues a certificate of authenticity, which contains specific details about the artwork itself. Unscrupulous sellers can duplicate the classic certificates of authenticity, and then use them to “authenticate” non-genuine works of art. In this way, the buyer will have a copy of an original certificate to attest that the “not original artwork” is an original one. A solution for this problem would be to insert a system that links together the certificate and the related specific artwork. To do this it is necessary, for a single artwork, to find unique, unrepeatable, and unchangeable characteristics. In this article we propose an innovative method for the authentication of stone lithographs. We use the color spots distribution captured by means of a smartphone camera as a non-cloneable texture of the specific artworks and an information management system for verifying it in mobility stone lithography. Full article

Surface electromyography (sEMG) is an important measurement technique used in biomechanical, rehabilitation and sport environments. In this article the design, development and testing of a low-cost wearable sEMG system are described. The hardware architecture consists of a two-cascade small-sized bioamplifier with a total gain of 2,000 and band-pass of 3 to 500 Hz. The sampling frequency of the system is 1,000 Hz. Since real measured EMG signals are usually corrupted by various types of noises (motion artifacts, white noise and electromagnetic noise present at 50 Hz and higher harmonics), we have tested several denoising techniques, both on artificial and measured EMG signals. Results showed that a wavelet—based technique implementing Daubechies5 wavelet and soft sqtwolog thresholding is the most appropriate for EMG signals denoising. To test the system performance, EMG activities of six dominant muscles of ten healthy subjects during gait were measured (gluteus maximus, biceps femoris, sartorius, rectus femoris, tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius). The obtained EMG envelopes presented against the duration of gait cycle were compared favourably with the EMG data available in the literature, suggesting that the proposed system is suitable for a wide range of applications in biomechanics. Full article

Various classification methods have been applied for low resolution of the entire Earth’s surface from recorded satellite images, but insufficient study has determined which method, for which satellite data, is economically viable for tropical forest land use mapping. This study employed Iterative Self Organizing Data Analysis Techniques (ISODATA) and K-Means classification techniques to classified Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance satellite image into forests, oil palm groves, rubber plantations, mixed horticulture, mixed oil palm and rubber and mixed forest and rubber. Even though frequent cloud cover has been a challenge for mapping tropical forests, our MODIS land use classification map found that 2008 ISODATA-1 performed well with overall accuracy of 94%, with the highest Producer’s Accuracy of Forest with 86%, and were consistent with MODIS Land Cover 2008 (MOD12Q1), respectively. The MODIS land use classification was able to distinguish young oil palm groves from open areas, rubber and mature oil palm plantations, on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) map, whereas rubber was more easily distinguished from an open area than from mixed rubber and forest. This study provides insight on the potential for integrating regional databases and temporal MODIS data, in order to map land use in tropical forest regions. Full article

Compressed sensing has been applied to achieve high resolution range profiles (HRRPs) using a stepped-frequency radar. In this new scheme, much fewer pulses are required to recover the target’s strong scattering centers, which can greatly reduce the coherent processing interval (CPI) and improve the anti-jamming capability. For practical applications, however, the required number of pulses is difficult to determine in advance and any reduction of the transmitted pulses is attractive. In this paper, a dynamic compressed sensing strategy for HRRP generation is proposed, in which the estimated HRRP is updated with sequentially transmitted and received pulses until the proper stopping rules are satisfied. To efficiently implement the sequential update, a complex-valued fast sequential homotopy (CV-FSH) algorithm is developed based on group sparse recovery. This algorithm performs as an efficient recursive procedure of sparse recovery, thus avoiding solving a new optimization problem from scratch. Furthermore, the proper stopping rules are presented according to the special characteristics of HRRP. Therefore, the optimal number of pulses required in each CPI can be sought adapting to the echo signal. The results using simulated and real data show the effectiveness of the proposed approach and demonstrate that the established dynamic strategy is more suitable for uncooperative targets. Full article

In many species of bacteria, the quorum sensing mechanism is used as a unique communication system which allows them to regulate gene expression and behavior in accordance with their population density. N-Acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs) are known as diffusible autoinducer molecules involved in this communication network. This finding aimed to characterize the production of AHL of a bacterial strain ND04 isolated from a Malaysian waterfall. Strain ND04 was identified as Kluyvera sp. as confirmed by molecular analysis of its 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence. Kluyvera sp. is closely related to the Enterobacteriaceae family. Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 was used as a biosensor to detect the production of AHL by strain ND04. High resolution triple quadrupole liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of strain ND04 showed our isolate produced two AHLs which are N-(3-oxohexanoyl)homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C6 HSL) and N-3-oxo-octanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C8 HSL). Full article

This paper introduces a design and implementation of a base station, capable of positioning sensor nodes using an optical scheme. The base station consists of a pulse laser module, optical detectors and beam splitter, which are mounted on a rotation-stage, and a Time to Digital Converter (TDC). The optical pulse signal transmitted to the sensor node with a Corner Cube Retro-reflector (CCR) is reflected to the base station, and the Time of Flight (ToF) data can be obtained from the two detectors. With the angle and flight time data, the position of the sensor node can be calculated. The performance of the system is evaluated by using a commercial CCR. The sensor nodes are placed at different angles from the base station and scanned using the laser. We analyze the node position error caused by the rotation and propose error compensation methods, namely the outlier sample exception and decreasing the confidence factor steadily using the recursive least square (RLS) methods. Based on the commercial CCR results, the MEMS CCR is also tested to demonstrate the compatibility between the base station and the proposed methods. The result shows that the localization performance of the system can be enhanced with the proposed compensation method using the MEMS CCR. Full article

For Wireless Sensor Networks, energy efficiency is always a key consideration in system design. Compressed sensing is a new theory which has promising prospects in WSNs. However, how to construct a sparse projection matrix is a problem. In this paper, based on a Bayesian compressed sensing framework, a new adaptive algorithm which can integrate routing and data collection is proposed. By introducing new target node selection metrics, embedding the routing structure and maximizing the differential entropy for each collection round, an adaptive projection vector is constructed. Simulations show that compared to reference algorithms, the proposed algorithm can decrease computation complexity and improve energy efficiency. Full article

A novel miniaturized calorimeter-type sensor device with a dual-catalyst structure was fabricated by integrating different catalysts on the hot (Pd/θ-Al₂O₃) and cold (Pt/α-Al₂O₃) ends of the device. The device comprises a calorimeter with a thermoelectric gas sensor (calorimetric-TGS), combining catalytic combustion and thermoelectric technologies. Its response for a model fuel gas of hydrogen and methane was investigated with various combustor catalyst compositions. The calorimetric-TGS devices detected H₂, CH₄, and a mixture of the two with concentrations ranging between 200 and 2000 ppm at temperatures of 100–400 °C, in terms of the calorie content of the gases. It was necessary to reduce the much higher response voltage of the TGS to H₂ compared to CH₄. We enhanced the H₂ combustion on the cold side so that the temperature differences and response voltages to H₂ were reduced. The device response to H₂ combustion was reduced by 50% by controlling the Pt concentration in the Pt/α-Al₂O₃ catalyst on the cold side to 3 wt%. Full article

This paper investigates the possibility of accurately detecting and tracking human gaze by using an unconstrained and noninvasive approach based on the head pose information extracted by an RGB-D device. The main advantages of the proposed solution are that it can operate in a totally unconstrained environment, it does not require any initial calibration and it can work in real-time. These features make it suitable for being used to assist human in everyday life (e.g., remote device control) or in specific actions (e.g., rehabilitation), and in general in all those applications where it is not possible to ask for user cooperation (e.g., when users with neurological impairments are involved). To evaluate gaze estimation accuracy, the proposed approach has been largely tested and results are then compared with the leading methods in the state of the art, which, in general, make use of strong constraints on the people movements, invasive/additional hardware and supervised pattern recognition modules. Experimental tests demonstrated that, in most cases, the errors in gaze estimation are comparable to the state of the art methods, although it works without additional constraints, calibration and supervised learning. Full article

This paper presents a swirl-shaped microfeatured ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuator. A novel micromachining process was developed to fabricate an array of IPMC actuators on a glass substrate and to ensure that no shortcircuits occur between the electrodes of the actuator. We demonstrated a microfluidic scheme in which surface tension was used to construct swirl-shaped planar IPMC devices of microfeature size and investigated the flow velocity of Nafion solutions, which formed the backbone polymer of the actuator, within the microchannel. The unique fabrication process yielded top and bottom electrodes that exhibited asymmetric surface resistance. A tool for measuring surface resistance was developed and used to characterize the resistances of the electrodes for the fabricated IPMC device. The actuator, which featured asymmetric electrode resistance, caused a nonzero-bias current when the device was driven using a zero-bias square wave, and we propose a circuit model to describe this phenomenon. Moreover, we discovered and characterized a bending and rotating motion when the IPMC actuator was driven using a square wave. We observed a strain rate of 14.6% and a displacement of 700 μm in the direction perpendicular to the electrode surfaces during 4.5-V actuation. Full article

A novel fiber-optic acoustic sensor using an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-based fiber ring laser and a balanced Sagnac interferometer for acoustic sensing of the partial discharge (PD) in power transformers is proposed and demonstrated. As a technical background, an experimental investigation on how the variations of the fiber birefringence affect the sensor performances was carried out, and the results are discussed. The operation principles are described, and the relevant formulas are derived. The analytical results show that an EDFA-based fiber ring laser operating in chaotic mode can provide a degree of polarization (DOP) tunable light beam for effectively suppressing polarization fading noises. The balanced Sagnac interferometer can eliminate command intensity noises and enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, it inherently operates at the quadrature point of the response curve without any active stabilizations. Several experiments are conducted for evaluating the performances of the sensor system, as well as for investigating the ability of the detection of high-frequency acoustic emission signals. The experimental results demonstrate that the DOP of the laser beam can be continuously tuned from 0.2% to 100%, and the power fluctuation in the whole DOP tuning range is less than 0.05 dBm. A high-frequency response up to 300 kHz is reached, and the high sensing sensitivity for detections of weak corona discharges, as well as partial discharges also is verified. Full article

We obtain an extremely high current sensitivity by wrapping a section of microfiber on a thin-diameter chromium-nickel wire. Our detected current sensitivity is as high as 220.65 nm/A² for a structure length of only 35 μm. Such sensitivity is two orders of magnitude higher than the counterparts reported in the literature. Analysis shows that a higher resistivity or/and a thinner diameter of the metal wire may produce higher sensitivity. The effects of varying the structure parameters on sensitivity are discussed. The presented structure has potential for low-current sensing or highly electrically-tunable filtering applications. Full article

In this paper the performance of a sensor system, which has been developed to estimate hip and knee angles and the beginning of the gait phase, have been investigated. The sensor system consists of accelerometers and gyroscopes. A new algorithm was developed in order to avoid the error accumulation due to the gyroscopes drift and vibrations due to the ground contact at the beginning of the stance phase. The proposed algorithm have been tested and compared to some existing algorithms on over-ground walking trials with a commercial device for assisted gait. The results have shown the good accuracy of the angles estimation, also in high angle rate movement. Full article

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), a great number of sensor nodes are deployed to gather sensed data. These sensor nodes are typically powered by batteries so their energy is restricted. Sensor nodes mainly consume energy consumption in data transmission, especially for a long distance. Since the location of the base station (BS) is remote, the energy consumed by each node to directly transmit its data to the BS is considerable and the node will die very soon. A well-designed routing protocol is thus essential to reduce the energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a Cycle-Based Data Aggregation Scheme (CBDAS) for grid-based WSNs. In CBDAS, the whole sensor field is divided into a grid of cells, each with a head. We prolong the network lifetime by linking all cell heads together to form a cyclic chain so that the gathered data can move in two directions. For data gathering in each round, the gathered data moves from node to node along the chain, getting aggregated. Finally, a designated cell head, the cycle leader, directly transmits to the BS. CBDAS performs data aggregation at every cell head so as to substantially reduce the amount of data that must be transmitted to the BS. Only cell heads need disseminate data so that the number of data transmissions is greatly diminished. Sensor nodes of each cell take turns as the cell head, and all cell heads on the cyclic chain also take turns being cycle leader. The energy depletion is evenly distributed so that the nodes’ lifetime is extended. As a result, the lifetime of the whole sensor network is extended. Simulation results show that CBDAS outperforms protocols like Direct, PEGASIS, and PBDAS. Full article

Buildings’ sustainability is one of the crucial parts for achieving urban sustainability. Applied to buildings, life-cycle assessment encompasses the analysis and assessment of the environmental effects of building materials, components and assemblies throughout the entire life of the building construction, use and demolition. Estimate of carbon emissions is essential and crucial for an accurate and reasonable life-cycle assessment. Addressing the need for more research into integrating analysis of real-time and automatic recording of key indicators for a more accurate calculation and comparison, this paper aims to design a real-time recording model of these crucial indicators concerning the calculation and estimation of energy use and carbon emissions of buildings based on a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based system. The architecture of the RFID-based carbon emission recording/tracking system, which contains four functional layers including data record layer, data collection/update layer, data aggregation layer and data sharing/backup layer, is presented. Each of these layers is formed by RFID or network devices and sub-systems that operate at a specific level. In the end, a proof-of-concept system is developed to illustrate the implementation of the proposed architecture and demonstrate the feasibility of the design. This study would provide the technical solution for real-time recording system of building carbon emissions and thus is of great significance and importance to improve urban sustainability. Full article

A complete error calibration model with 12 independent parameters is established by analyzing the three-axis magnetometer error mechanism. The said model conforms to an ellipsoid restriction, the parameters of the ellipsoid equation are estimated, and the ellipsoid coefficient matrix is derived. However, the calibration matrix cannot be determined completely, as there are fewer ellipsoid parameters than calibration model parameters. Mathematically, the calibration matrix derived from the ellipsoid coefficient matrix by a different matrix decomposition method is not unique, and there exists an unknown rotation matrix R between them. This paper puts forward a constant intersection angle method (angles between the geomagnetic field and gravitational field are fixed) to estimate R. The Tikhonov method is adopted to solve the problem that rounding errors or other errors may seriously affect the calculation results of R when the condition number of the matrix is very large. The geomagnetic field vector and heading error are further corrected by R. The constant intersection angle method is convenient and practical, as it is free from any additional calibration procedure or coordinate transformation. In addition, the simulation experiment indicates that the heading error declines from ±1° calibrated by classical ellipsoid fitting to ±0.2° calibrated by a constant intersection angle method, and the signal-to-noise ratio is 50 dB. The actual experiment exhibits that the heading error is further corrected from ±0.8° calibrated by the classical ellipsoid fitting to ±0.3° calibrated by a constant intersection angle method. Full article

NdFeB permanent magnets (PMs) are widely used in high performance electrical machines, but their relatively high conductivity subjects them to eddy current losses that can lead to magnetization loss. The Finite Element (FE) method is generally used to quantify the eddy current loss of PMs, but it remains quite difficult to validate the accuracy of the results with complex devices. In this paper, an experimental test device is used in order to extract the eddy current losses that are then compared with those of a 3D FE model. Full article

A Highway Intelligent Space System (HISS) is proposed to study vehicle environment perception in this paper. The nature of HISS is that a space sensors system using laser, ultrasonic or radar sensors are installed in a highway environment and communication technology is used to realize the information exchange between the HISS server and vehicles, which provides vehicles with the surrounding road information. Considering the high-speed feature of vehicles on highways, when vehicles will be passing a road ahead that is prone to accidents, the vehicle driving state should be predicted to ensure drivers have road environment perception information in advance, thereby ensuring vehicle driving safety and stability. In order to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the HISS, a traditional vehicle-mounted sensor system for environment perception is used to obtain the relative driving state. Furthermore, an inter-vehicle dynamics model is built and model predictive control approach is used to predict the driving state in the following period. Finally, the simulation results shows that using the HISS for environment perception can arrive at the same results detected by a traditional vehicle-mounted sensors system. Meanwhile, we can further draw the conclusion that using HISS to realize vehicle environment perception can ensure system stability, thereby demonstrating the method’s feasibility. Full article

Compared with conventional linear ultrasonic inspection methods, which are sensitive only to severe defects, nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods are better for revealing micro-cracks in thin plates. However, most nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods have only been experimentally investigated using bulk or Rayleigh waves. Numerical studies, especially numerical simulations of Lamb ultrasonic waves, have seldom been reported. In this paper, the interaction between nonlinear S0 mode Lamb waves and micro-cracks of various lengths and widths buried in a thin metallic plate was simulated using the finite element method (FEM). The numerical results indicate that after interacting with a micro-crack, a new wave-packet was generated in addition to the S0 mode wave-packet. The second harmonics of the S0 mode Lamb waves and the new wave-packet were caused by nonlinear acoustic effects at the micro-crack. An amplitude ratio indicator is thus proposed for the early detection of buried micro-cracks. Full article

The use of RGB-D sensors for mapping and recognition tasks in robotics or, in general, for virtual reconstruction has increased in recent years. The key aspect of these kinds of sensors is that they provide both depth and color information using the same device. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of the most important methods used in the literature for the registration of subsequent RGB-D video frames in static scenarios. The analysis begins by explaining the characteristics of the registration problem, dividing it into two representative applications: scene modeling and object reconstruction. Then, a detailed experimentation is carried out to determine the behavior of the different methods depending on the application. For both applications, we used standard datasets and a new one built for object reconstruction. Full article

We propose a new method for measuring the degree of eyestrain on 3D stereoscopic displays using a glasses-type of eye tracking device. Our study is novel in the following four ways: first, the circular area where a user’s gaze position exists is defined based on the calculated gaze position and gaze estimation error. Within this circular area, the position where edge strength is maximized can be detected, and we determine this position as the gaze position that has a higher probability of being the correct one. Based on this gaze point, the eye foveation model is defined. Second, we quantitatively evaluate the correlation between the degree of eyestrain and the causal factors of visual fatigue, such as the degree of change of stereoscopic disparity (CSD), stereoscopic disparity (SD), frame cancellation effect (FCE), and edge component (EC) of the 3D stereoscopic display using the eye foveation model. Third, by comparing the eyestrain in conventional 3D video and experimental 3D sample video, we analyze the characteristics of eyestrain according to various factors and types of 3D video. Fourth, by comparing the eyestrain with or without the compensation of eye saccades movement in 3D video, we analyze the characteristics of eyestrain according to the types of eye movements in 3D video. Experimental results show that the degree of CSD causes more eyestrain than other factors. Full article

One of the first standards in the wireless sensor networks domain,WirelessHART (HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer)), was introduced to address industrial process automation and control requirements. This standard can be used as a reference point to evaluate other wireless protocols in the domain of industrial monitoring and control. This makes it worthwhile to set up a reliable WirelessHART simulator in order to achieve that reference point in a relatively easy manner. Moreover, it offers an alternative to expensive testbeds for testing and evaluating the performance of WirelessHART. This paper explains our implementation of WirelessHART in the NS-2 network simulator. According to our knowledge, this is the first implementation that supports the WirelessHART network manager, as well as the whole stack (all OSI (Open Systems Interconnection model) layers) of the WirelessHART standard. It also explains our effort to validate the correctness of our implementation, namely through the validation of the implementation of the WirelessHART stack protocol and of the network manager. We use sniffed traffic from a realWirelessHART testbed installed in the Idrolab plant for these validations. This confirms the validity of our simulator. Empirical analysis shows that the simulated results are nearly comparable to the results obtained from real networks. We also demonstrate the versatility and usability of our implementation by providing some further evaluation results in diverse scenarios. For example, we evaluate the performance of the WirelessHART network by applying incremental interference in a multi-hop network. Full article

Plenoptic cameras are a new type of sensor that extend the possibilities of current commercial cameras allowing 3D refocusing or the capture of 3D depths. One of the limitations of plenoptic cameras is their limited spatial resolution. In this paper we describe a fast, specialized hardware implementation of a super-resolution algorithm for plenoptic cameras. The algorithm has been designed for field programmable graphic array (FPGA) devices using VHDL (very high speed integrated circuit (VHSIC) hardware description language). With this technology, we obtain an acceleration of several orders of magnitude using its extremely high-performance signal processing capability through parallelism and pipeline architecture. The system has been developed using generics of the VHDL language. This allows a very versatile and parameterizable system. The system user can easily modify parameters such as data width, number of microlenses of the plenoptic camera, their size and shape, and the super-resolution factor. The speed of the algorithm in FPGA has been successfully compared with the execution using a conventional computer for several image sizes and different 3D refocusing planes. Full article

As one of major underground pipelines, sewerage is an important infrastructure in any modern city. The most common problem occurring in sewerage is leaking, whose position and failure level is typically identified through closed circuit television (CCTV) inspection in order to facilitate rehabilitation process. This paper proposes a novel method of computer vision, morphological segmentation based on edge detection (MSED), to assist inspectors in detecting pipeline defects in CCTV inspection images. In addition to MSED, other mathematical morphology-based image segmentation methods, including opening top-hat operation (OTHO) and closing bottom-hat operation (CBHO), were also applied to the defect detection in vitrified clay sewer pipelines. The CCTV inspection images of the sewer system in the 9th district, Taichung City, Taiwan were selected as the experimental materials. The segmentation results demonstrate that MSED and OTHO are useful for the detection of cracks and open joints, respectively, which are the typical leakage defects found in sewer pipelines. Full article

Chair rise performance is incorporated in clinical assessments to indicate fall risk status in older persons. This study investigated the test-retest reliability of a pendant-sensor-based assessment of chair rise performance. Forty-one older persons (28 females, 13 males, age: 72–94) were assessed in two sessions with 3 to 8 days in between. Repeated chair rise transfers were measured after different instructions. Relative and absolute test-retest reliability of chair rise measurements in individual tests and average over all tests were evaluated by means of intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and standard error of measurement (SEM) as a percentage of the measurement mean. Systematic bias between the measurements in test and retest was examined with paired t-tests. Heteroscedasticity of the measurements was visually checked with Bland-Altman plots. In the different test conditions, the ICCs ranged between 0.63 and 0.93, and the SEM% ranged between 5.7% and 21.2%. The relative and absolute reliability of the average over all tests were ICC = 0.86 and SEM% = 9.5% for transfer duration, ICC = 0.93 and SEM% = 9.2% for maximum vertical acceleration, and ICC = 0.89 and SEM% = 10.0% for peak power. The results over all tests indicated that a fall risk assessment application based on pendant-worn-sensor measured chair rise performance in daily life might be feasible. Full article

The cornea is a very particular tissue due to its transparency and its barrier function as it has to resist against the daily insults of the external environment. In addition, maintenance of this barrier function is of crucial importance to ensure a correct corneal homeostasis. Here, the corneal epithelial permeability has been assessed in vivo by means of non-invasive tetrapolar impedance measurements, taking advantage of the huge impact of the ion fluxes in the passive electrical properties of living tissues. This has been possible by using a flexible sensor based in SU-8 photoresist. In this work, a further analysis focused on the validation of the presented sensor is performed by monitoring the healing process of corneas that were previously wounded. The obtained impedance measurements have been compared with the damaged area observed in corneal fluorescein staining images. The successful results confirm the feasibility of this novel method, as it represents a more sensitive in vivo and non-invasive test to assess low alterations of the epithelial permeability. Then, it could be used as an excellent complement to the fluorescein staining image evaluation. Full article

This paper presents a low-cost low-power CMOS humidity sensor for passive RFID sensing applications. The humidity sensing element is implemented in standard CMOS technology without any further post-processing, which results in low fabrication costs. The interface of this humidity sensor employs a PLL-based architecture transferring sensor signal processing from the voltage domain to the frequency domain. Therefore this architecture allows the use of a fully digital circuit, which can operate on ultra-low supply voltage and thus achieves low-power consumption. The proposed humidity sensor has been fabricated in the TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS process. The measurements show this humidity sensor exhibits excellent linearity and stability within the relative humidity range. The sensor interface circuit consumes only 1.05 µW at 0.5 V supply voltage and reduces it at least by an order of magnitude compared to previous designs. Full article

To take advantage of applications where both light and vibration energy are available, a hybrid indoor ambient light and vibration energy harvesting scheme is proposed in this paper. This scheme uses only one power conditioning circuit to condition the combined output power harvested from both energy sources so as to reduce the power dissipation. In order to more accurately predict the instantaneous power harvested from the solar panel, an improved five-parameter model for small-scale solar panel applying in low light illumination is presented. The output voltage is increased by using the MEMS piezoelectric cantilever arrays architecture. It overcomes the disadvantage of traditional MEMS vibration energy harvester with low voltage output. The implementation of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for indoor ambient light is implemented using analog discrete components, which improves the whole harvester efficiency significantly compared to the digital signal processor. The output power of the vibration energy harvester is improved by using the impedance matching technique. An efficient mechanism of energy accumulation and bleed-off is also discussed. Experiment results obtained from an amorphous-silicon (a-Si) solar panel of 4.8 × 2.0 cm² and a fabricated piezoelectric MEMS generator of 11 × 12.4 mm² show that the hybrid energy harvester achieves a maximum efficiency around 76.7%. Full article

Grinding is an advanced machining process for the manufacturing of valuable complex and accurate parts for high added value sectors such as aerospace, wind generation, etc. Due to the extremely severe conditions inside grinding machines, critical process variables such as part surface finish or grinding wheel wear cannot be easily and cheaply measured on-line. In this paper a virtual sensor for on-line monitoring of those variables is presented. The sensor is based on the modelling ability of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for stochastic and non-linear processes such as grinding; the selected architecture is the Layer-Recurrent neural network. The sensor makes use of the relation between the variables to be measured and power consumption in the wheel spindle, which can be easily measured. A sensor calibration methodology is presented, and the levels of error that can be expected are discussed. Validation of the new sensor is carried out by comparing the sensor’s results with actual measurements carried out in an industrial grinding machine. Results show excellent estimation performance for both wheel wear and surface roughness. In the case of wheel wear, the absolute error is within the range of microns (average value 32 μm). In the case of surface finish, the absolute error is well below R_a 1 μm (average value 0.32 μm). The present approach can be easily generalized to other grinding operations. Full article

The logistics and cost of environmental monitoring can represent challenges for heritage managers, partly because of the sheer number of environmental parameters to consider. There is a need for a system, capable of monitoring the holistic impact of the environment on cultural materials while remaining relatively easy to use and providing remote access. This paper describes a dosimetric system based on piezoelectric quartz crystal technology. The prototype sensing module consists of an array of piezoelectric quartz crystals (PQC) coated with different metals (Fe, Cu, Ni and Sn) and includes a temperature and relative humidity sensor. The communication module involves an 802.15.4 low-power radio and a GPRS gateway which allows real time visualisation of the measurements online. An energy management protocol ensures that the system consumes very low power between measurements. The paper also describes the results and experiences from two heritage field deployments, at Apsley House in London, UK, and at the Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin. Evaluation of PQC measurements, temperature, relative humidity and the rate of successful transmission over the communication systems are also reported. Full article

Blower and exhaust fans consume over 30% of electricity in a thermal power plant, and faults of these fans due to rotation stalls are one of the most frequent reasons for power plant outage failures. To accurately predict the occurrence of fan rotation stalls, we propose a support vector regression machine (SVRM) model that predicts the fan internal pressures during operation, leaving ample time for rotation stall detection. We train the SVRM model using experimental data samples, and perform pressure data prediction using the trained SVRM model. To prove the feasibility of using the SVRM model for rotation stall prediction, we further process the predicted pressure data via wavelet-transform-based stall detection. By comparison of the detection results from the predicted and measured pressure data, we demonstrate that the SVRM model can accurately predict the fan pressure and guarantee reliable stall detection with a time advance of up to 0.0625 s. This superior pressure data prediction capability leaves significant time for effective control and prevention of fan rotation stall faults. This model has great potential for use in intelligent fan systems with stall prevention capability, which will ensure safe operation and improve the energy efficiency of power plants. Full article

This paper presents a new effective approach for the sensitive film deposition of surface acoustic wave (SAW) chemical sensors for detecting organophosphorus compounds such as O-ethyl-S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate (VX) containing sulfur at extremely low concentrations. To improve the adsorptive efficiency, a two-step technology is proposed for the sensitive film preparation on the SAW delay line utilizing gold electrodes. First, mono[6-deoxy-6-[(mercaptodecamethylene)thio]]-β-cyclodextrin is chosen as the sensitive material for VX detection, and a ~2 nm-thick monolayer is formed on the SAW delay line by the binding of Au-S. This material is then analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Second, the VX molecule is used as the template for molecular imprinting. The template is then removed by washing the delay line with ethanol and distilled water, thereby producing the sensitive and selective material for VX detection. The performance of the developed SAW sensor is evaluated, and results show high sensitivity, low detection limit, and good linearity within the VX concentration of 0.15–5.8 mg/m³. The possible interactions between the film and VX are further discussed. Full article

Pavements always play a predominant role in transportation. Health monitoring of pavements is becoming more and more significant, as frequently suffering from cracks, rutting, and slippage renders them prematurely out of service. Effective and reliable sensing elements are thus in high demand to make prognosis on the mechanical properties and occurrence of damage to pavements. Therefore, in this paper, various types of functionality enhancement of industrialized optical fiber sensors for pavement monitoring are developed, with the corresponding operational principles clarified in theory and the performance double checked by basic experiments. Furthermore, a self-healing optical fiber sensing network system is adopted to accomplish full-scale monitoring of pavements. The application of optical fiber sensors assembly and self-healing network system in pavement has been carried out to validate the feasibility. It has been proved that the research in this article provides a valuable method and meaningful guidance for the integrity monitoring of civil structures, especially pavements. Full article

In digital current mode controlled DC-DC converters, conventional current sensors might not provide isolation at a minimized price, power loss and size. Therefore, a current observer which can be realized based on the digital circuit itself, is a possible substitute. However, the observed current may diverge due to the parasitic resistors and the forward conduction voltage of the diode. Moreover, the divergence of the observed current will cause steady state errors in the output voltage. In this paper, an optimal current observer is proposed. It achieves the highest observation accuracy by compensating for all the known parasitic parameters. By employing the optimal current observer-based predictive current controller, a buck converter is implemented. The converter has a convergently and accurately observed inductor current, and shows preferable transient response than the conventional voltage mode controlled converter. Besides, costs, power loss and size are minimized since the strategy requires no additional hardware for current sensing. The effectiveness of the proposed optimal current observer is demonstrated experimentally. Full article

Staphylococcus aureus is an important bacterial pathogen that produces a range of Staphylococcal Enterotoxins (SEs) which cause gastroenteritis and superantigen activation of T cells, the mechanism of which is not well understood. The ability to rapidly detect and quantify SEs is very important in order to learn the causes of staphylococcal outbreaks and to stop similar outbreaks in the future. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been developed for detection of several SEs. However, these immunological methods cannot distinguish between active and inactive toxin. It is known that interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) expressed in response to stimulation by SEs contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of S. aureus infection. Nonetheless, the cellular source of IFN-γ is still unclear and the contributions of the specific splenocyte types. In our effort to understand the immunologic response to Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A (SEA) exposure, we studied IFN-γ production in mouse splenocytes. We demonstrated that short term ex vivo exposure of splenocytes or primary naïve CD4⁺ T-cells to biologically active SEA induces differential expression of IFN-γ mRNA in a time and dose dependent manner and the expression levels reflect the levels of IFN-γ secreted protein. Positive isolated CD4⁺ T-cells accounted for only 10% of IFN-γ production. We also demonstrate that expression of IFN-γ can be used for rapid quantitative analysis of active SEA with a detection limit of 1 ng/mL. Full article

In this paper, we propose a new method for color image-based authentication that combines multispectral photon-counting imaging (MPCI) and double random phase encoding (DRPE) schemes. The sparsely distributed information from MPCI and the stationary white noise signal from DRPE make intruder attacks difficult. In this authentication method, the original multispectral RGB color image is down-sampled into a Bayer image. The three types of color samples (red, green and blue color) in the Bayer image are encrypted with DRPE and the amplitude part of the resulting image is photon counted. The corresponding phase information that has nonzero amplitude after photon counting is then kept for decryption. Experimental results show that the retrieved images from the proposed method do not visually resemble their original counterparts. Nevertheless, the original color image can be efficiently verified with statistical nonlinear correlations. Our experimental results also show that different interpolation algorithms applied to Bayer images result in different verification effects for multispectral RGB color images. Full article

Due to progress and demographic change, society is facing a crucial challenge related to increased life expectancy and a higher number of people in situations of dependency. As a consequence, there exists a significant demand for support systems for personal autonomy. This article outlines the vision@home project, whose goal is to extend independent living at home for elderly and impaired people, providing care and safety services by means of vision-based monitoring. Different kinds of ambient-assisted living services are supported, from the detection of home accidents, to telecare services. In this contribution, the specification of the system is presented, and novel contributions are made regarding human behaviour analysis and privacy protection. By means of a multi-view setup of cameras, people’s behaviour is recognised based on human action recognition. For this purpose, a weighted feature fusion scheme is proposed to learn from multiple views. In order to protect the right to privacy of the inhabitants when a remote connection occurs, a privacy-by-context method is proposed. The experimental results of the behaviour recognition method show an outstanding performance, as well as support for multi-view scenarios and real-time execution, which are required in order to provide the proposed services. Full article

A conducting composite prepared by dispersing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into a host matrix consisting of Nafion, electrochemically doped with copper, has been prepared, characterized and used to modify one of the gold electrodes of simply designed electrochemical cells having copier grade transparency sheets as substrates. Electrical measurements performed in deionized water show that the Au/Nafion/Au-MWCNTs–Nafion:Cu cells can be successfully used in order to detect the presence of p-aminophenol (PAP) in water, without the need for any supporting electrolyte. The intensity of the redox peaks arising when PAP is added to deionized water is found to be linearly related to the analyte in the range from 0.2 to 1.6 µM, with a detection limit of 90 nM and a sensitivity of 7 µA·(µM⁻¹)·cm⁻². Full article

Bacteria realize the ability to communicate by production of quorum sensing (QS) molecules called autoinducers, which regulate the physiological activities in their ecological niches. The oral cavity could be a potential area for the presence of QS bacteria. In this study, we report the isolation of a QS bacterial isolate C10B from dentine caries. Preliminary screening using Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 biosensor showed that isolate C10B was able to produce N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs). This bacterium was further identified as a member of Burkholderia, an opportunistic pathogen. The isolated Burkholderia sp. was confirmed to produce N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL), N-octanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C8-HSL), N-decanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C10-HSL) and N-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C12-HSL). Full article

In this paper the humidity sensing properties of layers prepared by a new method for obtaining doped tin oxide are studied. Different techniques—SEM, EDS in SEM, TEM, SAED, AES and electrical measurements—are used for detailed characterization of the thin layers. The as-deposited layers are amorphous with great specific area and low density. They are built up of a fine grained matrix, consisting of Sn- and Te-oxides, and a nanosized dispersed phase of Te, Sn and/or SnTe. The chemical composition of both the matrix and the nanosized particles depends on the ratio R_Sn/Te and the evaporation conditions. It is shown that as-deposited layers with R_Sn/Te ranging from 0.4 to 0.9 exhibit excellent characteristics as humidity sensors operating at room temperature—very high sensitivity, good selectivity, fast response and short recovery period. Ageing tests have shown that the layers possess good long-term stability. Results obtained regarding the type of the water adsorption on the layers’ surface help better understand the relation between preparation conditions, structure, composition and humidity sensing properties. Full article

The low average birth rate in developed countries and the increase in life expectancy have lead society to face for the first time an ageing situation. This situation associated with the World’s economic crisis (which started in 2008) forces the need of equating better and more efficient ways of providing more quality of life for the elderly. In this context, the solution presented in this work proposes to tackle the problem of monitoring the elderly in a way that is not restrictive for the life of the monitored, avoiding the need for premature nursing home admissions. To this end, the system uses the fusion of sensory data provided by a network of wireless sensors placed on the periphery of the user. Our approach was also designed with a low-cost deployment in mind, so that the target group may be as wide as possible. Regarding the detection of long-term problems, the tests conducted showed that the precision of the system in identifying and discerning body postures and body movements allows for a valid monitorization and rehabilitation of the user. Moreover, concerning the detection of accidents, while the proposed solution presented a near 100% precision at detecting normal falls, the detection of more complex falls (i.e., hampered falls) will require further study. Full article

The need for implementing reliable data transfer in resource-constrained cognitive radio ad hoc networks is still an open issue in the research community. Although geographical forwarding schemes are characterized by their low overhead and efficiency in reliable data transfer in traditional wireless sensor network, this potential is still yet to be utilized for viable routing options in resource-constrained cognitive radio ad hoc networks in the presence of lossy links. In this paper, a novel geographical forwarding technique that does not restrict the choice of the next hop to the nodes in the selected route is presented. This is achieved by the creation of virtual clusters based on spectrum correlation from which the next hop choice is made based on link quality. The design maximizes the use of idle listening and receiver contention prioritization for energy efficiency, the avoidance of routing hot spots and stability. The validation result, which closely follows the simulation result, shows that the developed scheme can make more advancement to the sink as against the usual decisions of relevant ad hoc on-demand distance vector route select operations, while ensuring channel quality. Further simulation results have shown the enhanced reliability, lower latency and energy efficiency of the presented scheme. Full article

A compact isotope ratio laser spectrometry (IRLS) instrument was developed for simultaneous measurements of the D/H, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ¹⁷O/¹⁶O isotope ratios in water by laser absorption spectroscopy at 2.73 μm. Special attention is paid to the spectral data processing and implementation of a Kalman adaptive filtering to improve the measurement precision. Reduction of up to 3-fold in standard deviation in isotope ratio determination was obtained by the use of a Fourier filtering to remove undulation structure from spectrum baseline. Application of Kalman filtering enables isotope ratio measurement at 1 s time intervals with a precision (<1‰) better than that obtained by conventional 30 s averaging, while maintaining a fast system response. The implementation of the filter is described in detail and its effects on the accuracy and the precision of the isotope ratio measurements are investigated. Full article

Curb detection is an essential component of Autonomous Land Vehicles (ALV), especially important for safe driving in urban environments. In this paper, we propose a fusion-based curb detection method through exploiting 3D-Lidar and camera data. More specifically, we first fuse the sparse 3D-Lidar points and high-resolution camera images together to recover a dense depth image of the captured scene. Based on the recovered dense depth image, we propose a filter-based method to estimate the normal direction within the image. Then, by using the multi-scale normal patterns based on the curb’s geometric property, curb point features fitting the patterns are detected in the normal image row by row. After that, we construct a Markov Chain to model the consistency of curb points which utilizes the continuous property of the curb, and thus the optimal curb path which links the curb points together can be efficiently estimated by dynamic programming. Finally, we perform post-processing operations to filter the outliers, parameterize the curbs and give the confidence scores on the detected curbs. Extensive evaluations clearly show that our proposed method can detect curbs with strong robustness at real-time speed for both static and dynamic scenes. Full article

Underground displacement monitoring is an effective method to explore deep into rock and soil masses for execution of subsurface displacement measurements. It is not only an important means of geological hazards prediction and forecasting, but also a forefront, hot and sophisticated subject in current geological disaster monitoring. In previous research, the authors had designed a novel electromagnetic underground horizontal displacement sensor (called the H-type sensor) by combining basic electromagnetic induction principles with modern sensing techniques and established a mutual voltage measurement theoretical model called the Equation-based Equivalent Loop Approach (EELA). Based on that work, this paper presents an underground displacement inversion approach named “EELA forward modeling-approximate inversion method”. Combining the EELA forward simulation approach with the approximate optimization inversion theory, it can deduce the underground horizontal displacement through parameter inversion of the H-type sensor. Comprehensive and comparative studies have been conducted between the experimentally measured and theoretically inversed values of horizontal displacement under counterpart conditions. The results show when the measured horizontal displacements are in the 0–100 mm range, the horizontal displacement inversion discrepancy is generally tested to be less than 3 mm under varied tilt angles and initial axial distances conditions, which indicates that our proposed parameter inversion method can predict underground horizontal displacement measurements effectively and robustly for the H-type sensor and the technique is applicable for practical geo-engineering applications. Full article

Ultrasonic measurement techniques for velocity estimation are currently widely used in fluid flow studies and applications. An accurate determination of interfacial position in gas-liquid two-phase flows is still an open problem. The quality of this information directly reflects on the accuracy of void fraction measurement, and it provides a means of discriminating velocity information of both phases. The algorithm known as Velocity Matched Spectrum (VM Spectrum) is a velocity estimator that stands out from other methods by returning a spectrum of velocities for each interrogated volume sample. Interface detection of free-rising bubbles in quiescent liquid presents some difficulties for interface detection due to abrupt changes in interface inclination. In this work a method based on velocity spectrum curve shape is used to generate a spatial-temporal mapping, which, after spatial filtering, yields an accurate contour of the air-water interface. It is shown that the proposed technique yields a RMS error between 1.71 and 3.39 and a probability of detection failure and false detection between 0.89% and 11.9% in determining the spatial-temporal gas-liquid interface position in the flow of free rising bubbles in stagnant liquid. This result is valid for both free path and with transducer emitting through a metallic plate or a Plexiglas pipe. Full article

A highly sensitive, rapid immunoassay performed in the multi-channels of a micro-well array consisting of a multicapillary glass plate (MCP) and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) slide is described. The micro-dimensions and large surface area of the MCP permitted the diffusion distance to be decreased and the reaction efficiency to be increased. To confirm the concept of the method, human immunoglobulin A (h-IgA) was measured using both the proposed immunoassay system and the traditional 96-well plate method. The proposed method resulted in a 1/5-fold decrease of immunoassay time, and a 1/56-fold cut in reagent consumption with a 0.05 ng/mL of limit of detection (LOD) for IgA. The method was also applied to saliva samples obtained from healthy volunteers. The results correlated well to those obtained by the 96-well plate method. The method has the potential for use in disease diagnostic or on-site immunoassays. Full article

Proteobacteria use quorum sensing to regulate target gene expression in response to population density. Quorum sensing (QS) is achieved via so-called signalling molecules and the best-studied QS signalling system uses N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs). This study aimed to identify and characterize the production of AHLs by a bacterium ND03 isolated from a Malaysian tropical rainforest waterfall. Molecular identification showed that ND03 is a Pantoea sp. closely related to Pantoea rodasii. We used Chromobacterium violaceum CV026, an AHL biosensor for preliminary AHL production screening and then used high resolution triple quadrupole liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, to confirm that P. rodasii strain ND03 produced N-(3-oxo-hexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C6-HSL). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for such a discovery in P. rodasii strain ND03. Full article

With the development of high-performance aircraft, precise air data are necessary to complete challenging tasks such as flight maneuvering with large angles of attack and high speed. As a result, the flush air data sensing system (FADS) was developed to satisfy the stricter control demands. In this paper, comparative stuides on the solving model and algorithm for FADS are conducted. First, the basic principles of FADS are given to elucidate the nonlinear relations between the inputs and the outputs. Then, several different solving models and algorithms of FADS are provided to compute the air data, including the angle of attck, sideslip angle, dynamic pressure and static pressure. Afterwards, the evaluation criteria of the resulting models and algorithms are discussed to satisfy the real design demands. Futhermore, a simulation using these algorithms is performed to identify the properites of the distinct models and algorithms such as the measuring precision and real-time features. The advantages of these models and algorithms corresponding to the different flight conditions are also analyzed, furthermore, some suggestions on their engineering applications are proposed to help future research. Full article

Service provisioning in assisted living environments faces distinct challenges due to the heterogeneity of networks, access technology, and sensing/actuation devices in such an environment. Existing solutions, such as SOAP-based web services, can interconnect heterogeneous devices and services, and can be published, discovered and invoked dynamically. However, it is considered heavier than what is required in the smart environment-like context and hence suffers from performance degradation. Alternatively, REpresentational State Transfer (REST) has gained much attention from the community and is considered as a lighter and cleaner technology compared to the SOAP-based web services. Since it is simple to publish and use a RESTful web service, more and more service providers are moving toward REST-based solutions, which promote a resource-centric conceptualization as opposed to a service-centric conceptualization. Despite such benefits of REST, the dynamic discovery and eventing of RESTful services are yet considered a major hurdle to utilization of the full potential of REST-based approaches. In this paper, we address this issue, by providing a RESTful discovery and eventing specification and demonstrate it in an assisted living healthcare scenario. We envisage that through this approach, the service provisioning in ambient assisted living or other smart environment settings will be more efficient, timely, and less resource-intensive. Full article

A low-power, wide-dynamic-range integrated humidity sensing chip is implemented using a printable polymer sensing material with an on-chip pulse-width-modulation interface circuit. By using the inkjet printing technique, poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonate that has humidity sensing features can be printed onto the top metal layer of a 0.35 μm CMOS IC. The developed printing-on-chip humidity sensor achieves a heterogeneous three dimensional sensor system-on-chip architecture. The humidity sensing of the implemented printing-on-chip sensor system is experimentally tested. The sensor shows a sensitivity of 0.98% to humidity in the atmosphere. The maximum dynamic range of the readout circuit is 9.8 MΩ, which can be further tuned by the frequency of input signal to fit the requirement of the resistance of printed sensor. The power consumption keeps only 154 μW. This printing-on-chip sensor provides a practical solution to fulfill an ultra-small integrated sensor for the applications in miniaturized sensing systems. Full article

This paper proposes an approach for measuring the azimuth angle and tilt angle of underground drilling tools with a MEMS three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis fluxgate sensor. A mathematical model of well logging attitude angle is deduced based on combining space coordinate transformations and algebraic equations. In addition, a system implementation plan of the inclinometer is given in this paper, which features low cost, small volume and integration. Aiming at the sensor and assembly errors, this paper analyses the sources of errors, and establishes two mathematical models of errors and calculates related parameters to achieve sensor calibration. The results show that this scheme can obtain a stable and high precision azimuth angle and tilt angle of drilling tools, with the deviation of the former less than ±1.4° and the deviation of the latter less than ±0.1°. Full article

The canopy foliage clumping effect is primarily caused by the non-random distribution of canopy foliage. Currently, measurements of clumping index (CI) by handheld instruments is typically time- and labor-intensive. We propose a low-cost and low-power automatic measurement system called Multi-point Linear Array of Optical Sensors (MLAOS), which consists of three above-canopy and nine below-canopy optical sensors that capture plant transmittance at different times of the day. Data communication between the MLAOS node is facilitated by using a ZigBee network, and the data are transmitted from the field MLAOS to a remote data server using the Internet. The choice of the electronic element and design of the MLAOS software is aimed at reducing costs and power consumption. A power consumption test showed that, when a 4000 mAH Li-ion battery is used, a maximum of 8–10 months of work can be achieved. A field experiment on a coniferous forest revealed that the CI of MLAOS may reveal a clumping effect that occurs within the canopy. In further work, measurement of the multi-scale clumping effect can be achieved by utilizing a greater number of MLAOS devices to capture the heterogeneity of the plant canopy. Full article

A new acquisition system for remote control of wall paintings has been realized and tested in the field. The system measures temperature and atmospheric pressure in an archeological site where a fresco has been put under control. The measuring chain has been designed to be used in unfavorable environments where neither electric power nor telecommunication infrastructures are available. The environmental parameters obtained from the local monitoring are then transferred remotely allowing an easier management by experts in the field of conservation of cultural heritage. The local acquisition system uses an electronic card based on microcontrollers and sends the data to a central unit realized with a Raspberry-Pi. The latter manages a high quality camera to pick up pictures of the fresco. Finally, to realize the remote control at a site not reached by internet signals, a WiMAX connection based on different communication technologies such as WiMAX, Ethernet, GPRS and Satellite, has been set up. Full article

Technology provides ample opportunities for the acquisition and processing of physical, mental and social health primitives. However, several challenges remain for researchers as how to define the relationship between reported physical activities, mood and social interaction to define an active lifestyle. We are conducting a project, ATHENA(activity-awareness for human-engaged wellness applications) to design and integrate the relationship between these basic health primitives to approximate the human lifestyle and real-time recommendations for wellbeing services. Our goal is to develop a system to promote an active lifestyle for individuals and to recommend to them valuable interventions by making comparisons to their past habits. The proposed system processes sensory data through our developed machine learning algorithms inside smart devices and utilizes cloud infrastructure to reduce the cost. We exploit big data infrastructure for massive sensory data storage and fast retrieval for recommendations. Our contributions include the development of a prototype system to promote an active lifestyle and a visual design capable of engaging users in the goal of increasing self-motivation. We believe that our study will impact the design of future ubiquitous wellness applications. Full article

Fall incidents among the elderly often occur in the home and can cause serious injuries affecting their independent living. This paper presents an approach where data from wearable sensors integrated in a smart home environment is combined using a dynamic Bayesian network. The smart home environment provides contextual data, obtained from environmental sensors, and contributes to assessing a fall risk probability. The evaluation of the developed system is performed through simulation. Each time step is represented by a single user activity and interacts with a fall sensors located on a mobile device. A posterior probability is calculated for each recognized activity or contextual information. The output of the system provides a total risk assessment of falling given a response from the fall sensor. Full article

Time derivative estimation of signals plays a very important role in several fields, such as signal processing and control engineering, just to name a few of them. For that purpose, a non-asymptotic algebraic procedure for the approximate estimation of the system states is used in this work. The method is based on results from differential algebra and furnishes some general formulae for the time derivatives of a measurable signal in which two algebraic derivative estimators run simultaneously, but in an overlapping fashion. The algebraic derivative algorithm presented in this paper is computed online and in real-time, offering high robustness properties with regard to corrupting noises, versatility and ease of implementation. Besides, in this work, we introduce a novel architecture to accelerate this algebraic derivative estimator using reconfigurable logic. The core of the algorithm is implemented in an FPGA, improving the speed of the system and achieving real-time performance. Finally, this work proposes a low-cost platform for the integration of hardware in the loop in MATLAB. Full article

Understanding as well as realistic reproduction of the appearance of materials play an important role in computer graphics, computer vision and industry. They enable applications such as digital material design, virtual prototyping and faithful virtual surrogates for entertainment, marketing, education or cultural heritage documentation. A particularly fruitful way to obtain the digital appearance is the acquisition of reflectance from real-world material samples. Therefore, a great variety of devices to perform this task has been proposed. In this work, we investigate their practical usefulness. We first identify a set of necessary attributes and establish a general categorization of different designs that have been realized. Subsequently, we provide an in-depth discussion of three particular implementations by our work group, demonstrating advantages and disadvantages of different system designs with respect to the previously established attributes. Finally, we survey the existing literature to compare our implementation with related approaches. Full article

Humidity measurement is one of the most significant issues in various areas of applications such as instrumentation, automated systems, agriculture, climatology and GIS. Numerous sorts of humidity sensors fabricated and developed for industrial and laboratory applications are reviewed and presented in this article. The survey frequently concentrates on the RH sensors based upon their organic and inorganic functional materials, e.g., porous ceramics (semiconductors), polymers, ceramic/polymer and electrolytes, as well as conduction mechanism and fabrication technologies. A significant aim of this review is to provide a distinct categorization pursuant to state of the art humidity sensor types, principles of work, sensing substances, transduction mechanisms, and production technologies. Furthermore, performance characteristics of the different humidity sensors such as electrical and statistical data will be detailed and gives an added value to the report. By comparison of overall prospects of the sensors it was revealed that there are still drawbacks as to efficiency of sensing elements and conduction values. The flexibility offered by thick film and thin film processes either in the preparation of materials or in the choice of shape and size of the sensor structure provides advantages over other technologies. These ceramic sensors show faster response than other types. Full article

Plasmonic sensing has been an important multidisciplinary research field and has been extensively used in detection of trace molecules in chemistry and biology. The sensing techniques are typically based on surface-enhanced spectroscopies and surface plasmon resonances (SPRs). This review article deals with some recent advances in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors and SPR sensors using either localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) or propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The advances discussed herein present some improvements in SERS and SPR sensing, as well as a new type of nanowire-based SPP sensor. Full article

The concept of recognition and biofunctionality has attracted increasing interest in the fields of chemistry and material sciences. Advances in the field of nanotechnology for the synthesis of desired metal oxide nanostructures have provided a solid platform for the integration of nanoelectronic devices. These nanoelectronics-based devices have the ability to recognize molecular species of living organisms, and they have created the possibility for advanced chemical sensing functionalities with low limits of detection in the nanomolar range. In this review, various metal oxides, such as ZnO-, CuO-, and NiO-based nanosensors, are described using different methods (receptors) of functionalization for molecular and ion recognition. These functionalized metal oxide surfaces with a specific receptor involve either a complex formation between the receptor and the analyte or an electrostatic interaction during the chemical sensing of analytes. Metal oxide nanostructures are considered revolutionary nanomaterials that have a specific surface for the immobilization of biomolecules with much needed orientation, good conformation and enhanced biological activity which further improve the sensing properties of nanosensors. Metal oxide nanostructures are associated with certain unique optical, electrical and molecular characteristics in addition to unique functionalities and surface charge features which shows attractive platforms for interfacing biorecognition elements with effective transducing properties for signal amplification. There is a great opportunity in the near future for metal oxide nanostructure-based miniaturization and the development of engineering sensor devices. Full article

Responsive polymer-based materials have found numerous applications due to their ease of synthesis and the variety of stimuli that they can be made responsive to. In this review, we highlight the group’s efforts utilizing thermoresponsive poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) microgel-based optical devices for various sensing and biosensing applications. Full article

MicroRNAs or miRNAs are a form of small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) of 19–22 nucleotides in length in their mature form. miRNAs are transcribed in the nucleus of all cells from large precursors, many of which have several kilobases in length. Originally identified as intracellular modulators of protein synthesis via posttranscriptional gene silencing, more recently it has been found that miRNAs can travel in extracellular human fluids inside specialized vesicles known as exosomes. We will be referring to this miRNAs as circulating microRNAs. More interestingly, the miRNA content inside exosomes changes during pathological events. In the present review we analyze the literature about circulating miRNAs and their possible use as biomarkers. Furthermore, we explore their future in point-of-care (POC) diagnostics and provide an example of a portable POC apparatus useful in the detection of circulating miRNAs. Full article

In this survey a new application paradigm life and safety for critical operations and missions using wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology is introduced. This paradigm has a vast scope of applications, including disaster management, worker safety in harsh environments such as roadside and building workers, mobile health monitoring, ambient assisted living and many more. It is often the case that during the critical operations and the target conditions, the existing infrastructure is either absent, damaged or overcrowded. In this context, it is envisioned that WBANs will enable the quick deployment of ad-hoc/on-the-fly communication networks to help save many lives and ensuring people’s safety. However, to understand the applications more deeply and their specific characteristics and requirements, this survey presents a comprehensive study on the applications scenarios, their context and specific requirements. It explores details of the key enabling standards, existing state-of-the-art research studies, and projects to understand their limitations before realizing aforementioned applications. Application-specific challenges and issues are discussed comprehensively from various perspectives and future research and development directions are highlighted as an inspiration for new innovative solutions. To conclude, this survey opens up a good opportunity for companies and research centers to investigate old but still new problems, in the realm of wearable technologies, which are increasingly evolving and getting more and more attention recently. Full article

The lensing capabilities of a single subwavelength slit surrounded by a finite array of grooves milled into a brass plate is presented. The modulation of the beam intensity of this ultrasonic lens can be adjusted by varying the groove depth. Numerical simulations as well as experimental validations at 290 kHz are shown. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations. This system is believed to have potential applications for medical ultrasound fields such as tomography and therapy. Full article