Special Issue "State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2012"
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "State-of-the-Art Sensors Technologies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2013)
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The aim of this special issue is to provide a comprehensive view on the state-of-the-art sensors technology in Japan. Research articles are solicited which will provide a consolidated state-of-the-art in this area. The Special Issue will publish those full research, review and high rated manuscripts addressing the above topic.
Prof. Dr. Yoshiteru Ishida
Dr. Koji Harada
Guest Editors
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs).
Keywords
- biosensors
- chemical sensors
- physical sensors
- remote sensing sensors
- sensor networks
- sensor and sensing system technologies for disaster reduction and prevention
- sensor and sensing technologies for robust and resilient systems
- sensor systems
- microarrays
- sensors for artificial satellites
Published Papers (12 papers)
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Received: 7 September 2012; in revised form: 19 October 2012 / Accepted: 22 October 2012 / Published: 29 October 2012
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Abstract: Decomposition of formaldehyde (HCHO) by a microplasma reactor in order to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) was achieved. HCHO was removed from air using one pass through reactor treatment (5 L/min). From an initial concentration of HCHO of 0.7 ppm about 96% was removed in one pass treatment using a discharge power of 0.3 W provided by a high voltage amplifier and a Marx Generator with MOSFET switches as pulsed power supplies. Moreover microplasma driven by the Marx Generator did not generate NOx as detected by a chemiluminescence NOx analyzer. In the case of large volume treatment the removal ratio of HCHO (initial concentration: 0.5 ppm) after 60 minutes was 51% at 1.2 kV when using HV amplifier considering also a 41% natural decay ratio of HCHO. The removal ratio was 54% at 1.2 kV when a Marx Generator energized the electrodes with a 44% natural decay ratio after 60 minutes of treatment.
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Received: 30 September 2012; in revised form: 19 November 2012 / Accepted: 3 December 2012 / Published: 7 December 2012
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Abstract: An infrared ceiling sensor network system is reported in this study to realize behavior analysis and fall detection of a single person in the home environment. The sensors output multiple binary sequences from which we know the existence/non-existence of persons under the sensors. The short duration averages of the binary responses are shown to be able to be regarded as pixel values of a top-view camera, but more advantageous in the sense of preserving privacy. Using the “pixel values” as features, support vector machine classifiers succeeded in recognizing eight activities (walking, reading, etc.) performed by five subjects at an average recognition rate of 80.65%. In addition, we proposed a martingale framework for detecting falls in this system. The experimental results showed that we attained the best performance of 95.14% (F1 value), the FAR of 7.5% and the FRR of 2.0%. This accuracy is not sufficient in general but surprisingly high with such low-level information. In summary, it is shown that this system has the potential to be used in the home environment to provide personalized services and to detect abnormalities of elders who live alone.
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Received: 19 October 2012; in revised form: 28 November 2012 / Accepted: 18 December 2012 / Published: 21 December 2012
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Abstract: Accurate localization of moving sensors is essential for many fields, such as robot navigation and urban mapping. In this paper, we present a framework for GPS-supported visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping with Bundle Adjustment (BA-SLAM) using a rigorous sensor model in a panoramic camera. The rigorous model does not cause system errors, thus representing an improvement over the widely used ideal sensor model. The proposed SLAM does not require additional restrictions, such as loop closing, or additional sensors, such as expensive inertial measurement units. In this paper, the problems of the ideal sensor model for a panoramic camera are analysed, and a rigorous sensor model is established. GPS data are then introduced for global optimization and georeferencing. Using the rigorous sensor model with the geometric observation equations of BA, a GPS-supported BA-SLAM approach that combines ray observations and GPS observations is then established. Finally, our method is applied to a set of vehicle-borne panoramic images captured from a campus environment, and several ground control points (GCP) are used to check the localization accuracy. The results demonstrated that our method can reach an accuracy of several centimetres.
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Received: 7 December 2012; in revised form: 25 December 2012 / Accepted: 31 December 2012 / Published: 7 January 2013
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Abstract: A technique for rapid detection of pathogenic microorganisms is essential for the diagnosis of associated infections and for food safety analysis. Aeromonas hydrophila is one such food contaminant. Several methods for rapid detection of this pathogen have been developed; these include multiplex polymerase chain reaction assays and the colony overlay procedure for peptidases. However, these conventional methods can only be used to detect the microorganisms at high accuracy after symptomatic onset of the disease. Therefore, in the future, simple pre-screening methods may be useful for preventing food poisoning and disease. In this paper, we present a novel system for the rapid detection of the microorganism A. hydrophila in cultured media (in <2 h), with the use of an electronic nose (FF-2A). With this electronic nose, we detected the changes of volatile patterns produced by A. hydrophila after 30 min culture. Our calculations revealed that the increased volatiles were similar to the odours of organic acids and esters. In future, distinctive volatile production patterns of microorganisms identified with the electronic nose may have the potential in microorganism detection.
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Received: 14 December 2012; in revised form: 14 January 2013 / Accepted: 14 January 2013 / Published: 16 January 2013
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Abstract: We have developed a new portable taste sensor with a lipid/polymer membrane and conducted experiments to evaluate the sensor’s performance. The fabricated sensor consists of a taste sensor chip (40 mm × 26 mm × 2.2 mm) with working and reference electrodes and a portable sensor device (80 mm × 25 mm × 20 mm). The working electrode consists of a taste-sensing site comprising a poly(hydroxyethyl)methacrylate (pHEMA) hydrogel layer with KCl as the electrolyte layer and a lipid/polymer membrane as the taste sensing element. The reference electrode comprises a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane layer with a small hole and a pHEMA layer with KCl. The whole device is the size of a USB memory stick, making it suitable for portable use. The sensor’s response to tannic acid as the standard astringency substance showed good accuracy and reproducibility, and was comparable with the performance of a commercially available taste sensing system. Thus, it is possible for this sensor to be used for in-field evaluations and it can make a significant contribution to the food industry, as well as in various fields of research.
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Received: 25 October 2012; in revised form: 15 January 2013 / Accepted: 4 February 2013 / Published: 7 February 2013
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Abstract: Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) has outstanding affinity over DNA for complementary nucleic acid sequences by forming a PNA-DNA heterodimer upon hybridization via Watson-Crick base-pairing. To verify whether PNA probes on an electrode surface enhance sensitivity for potentiometric DNA detection or not, we conducted a comparative study on the hybridization of PNA and DNA probes on the surface of a 10-channel gold electrodes microarray. Changes in the charge density as a result of hybridization at the solution/electrode interface on the self-assembled monolayer (SAM)-formed microelectrodes were directly transformed into potentiometric signals using a high input impedance electrometer. The charge readout allows label-free, reagent-less, and multi-parallel detection of target oligonucleotides without any optical assistance. The differences in the probe lengths between 15- to 22-mer dramatically influenced on the sensitivity of the PNA and DNA sensors. Molecular type of the capturing probe did not affect the degree of potential shift. Theoretical model for charged rod-like duplex using the Gouy-Chapman equation indicates the dominant effect of electrostatic attractive forces between anionic DNA and underlying electrode at the electrolyte/electrode interface in the potentiometry.
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Received: 7 December 2012; in revised form: 24 January 2013 / Accepted: 2 February 2013 / Published: 8 February 2013
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Abstract: In this study, we developed a compact wireless Laplacian electrode module for electromyograms (EMGs). One of the advantages of the Laplacian electrode configuration is that EMGs obtained with it are expected to be sensitive to the firing of the muscle directly beneath the measurement site. The performance of the developed electrode module was investigated in two human interface applications: character-input interface and detection of finger movement during finger Braille typing. In the former application, the electrode module was combined with an EMG-mouse click converter circuit. In the latter, four electrode modules were used for detection of finger movements during finger Braille typing. Investigation on the character-input interface indicated that characters could be input stably by contraction of (a) the masseter, (b) trapezius, (c) anterior tibialis and (d) flexor carpi ulnaris muscles. This wide applicability is desirable when the interface is applied to persons with physical disabilities because the disability differs one to another. The investigation also demonstrated that the electrode module can work properly without any skin preparation. Finger movement detection experiments showed that each finger movement was more clearly detectable when comparing to EMGs recorded with conventional electrodes, suggesting that the Laplacian electrode module is more suitable for detecting the timing of finger movement during typing. This could be because the Laplacian configuration enables us to record EMGs just beneath the electrode. These results demonstrate the advantages of the Laplacian electrode module.
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Received: 5 January 2013; in revised form: 5 February 2013 / Accepted: 25 February 2013 / Published: 6 March 2013
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Abstract: The performance of conventional minutiae-based fingerprint authentication algorithms degrades significantly when dealing with low quality fingerprints with lots of cuts or scratches. A similar degradation of the minutiae-based algorithms is observed when small overlapping areas appear because of the quite narrow width of the sensors. Based on the detection of minutiae, Scale Invariant Feature Transformation (SIFT) descriptors are employed to fulfill verification tasks in the above difficult scenarios. However, the original SIFT algorithm is not suitable for fingerprint because of: (1) the similar patterns of parallel ridges; and (2) high computational resource consumption. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithm for fingerprint verification, we propose a SIFT-based Minutia Descriptor (SMD) to improve the SIFT algorithm through image processing, descriptor extraction and matcher. A two-step fast matcher, named improved All Descriptor-Pair Matching (iADM), is also proposed to implement the 1:N verifications in real-time. Fingerprint Identification using SMD and iADM (FISiA) achieved a significant improvement with respect to accuracy in representative databases compared with the conventional minutiae-based method. The speed of FISiA also can meet real-time requirements.
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Received: 29 January 2013; in revised form: 26 February 2013 / Accepted: 7 March 2013 / Published: 11 March 2013
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Abstract: We have developed a real-time terahertz time-domain polarization analyzer by using 80-MHz repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses. Our technique is based on the spinning electro-optic sensor method, which we recently proposed and demonstrated by using a regenerative amplifier laser system; here we improve the detection scheme in order to be able to use it with a femtosecond laser oscillator with laser pulses of a much higher repetition rate. This improvement brings great advantages for realizing broadband, compact and stable real-time terahertz time-domain polarization measurement systems for scientific and industrial applications.
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Received: 1 March 2013; in revised form: 21 March 2013 / Accepted: 22 March 2013 / Published: 26 March 2013
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Abstract: The authors propose a Manchester Encoding inspired illumination modulation strategy to properly index the temporally-aligned vision frames, which are successfully synchronized by the LED reference signal. Based on signal normalization, Manchester Encoded reference signals carry temporal information owing to serial communication and thus can timestamp the output vision frame. Both simulated and experimental results show satisfactory robustness to various disturbances, such as dynamic targets, fluctuant optical intensity, and unfixed cameras, etc. The 1,000 Hz vision sensor is locked to 500 Hz temporally modulated LED illumination with only 24 μs jitters. This result is believed to be applicable to low-cost wireless vision sensor network.
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Received: 16 February 2013; in revised form: 21 March 2013 / Accepted: 24 March 2013 / Published: 27 March 2013
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Abstract: A temperature sensor that uses temperature-sensitive fluorescent dyes is developed. The droplet sensor has a diameter of 40 µm and uses 1 g/L of Rhodamine B (RhB) and 0.5 g/L of Rhodamine 110 (Rh110), which are fluorescent dyes that are dissolved in an ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate) to function as temperature indicators. This ionic liquid is encapsulated using vacuum Parylene film deposition (which is known as the Parylene-on-liquid-deposition (PoLD) method). The droplet is sealed by the chemically stable and impermeable Parylene film, which prevents the dye from interacting with the molecules in the solution and keeps the volume and concentration of the fluorescent material fixed. The two fluorescent dyes enable the temperature to be measured ratiometrically such that the droplet sensor can be used in various applications, such as the wireless temperature measurement of microregions. The sensor can measure the temperature of such microregions with an accuracy of 1.9 °C, a precision of 3.7 °C, and a fluorescence intensity change sensitivity of 1.0%/K. The sensor can measure temperatures at different sensor depths in water, ranging from 0 to 850 µm. The droplet sensor is fabricated using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology and is highly applicable to lab-on-a-chip devices.
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Received: 19 February 2013; in revised form: 19 March 2013 / Accepted: 26 March 2013 / Published: 8 April 2013
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Abstract: The ISIS is an ultra-fast image sensor with in-pixel storage. The evolution of the ISIS in the past and in the near future is reviewed and forecasted. To cover the storage area with a light shield, the conventional frontside illuminated ISIS has a limited fill factor. To achieve higher sensitivity, a BSI ISIS was developed. To avoid direct intrusion of light and migration of signal electrons to the storage area on the frontside, a cross-sectional sensor structure with thick pnpn layers was developed, and named “Tetratified structure”. By folding and looping in-pixel storage CCDs, an image signal accumulation sensor, ISAS, is proposed. The ISAS has a new function, the in-pixel signal accumulation, in addition to the ultra-high-speed imaging. To achieve much higher frame rate, a multi-collection-gate (MCG) BSI image sensor architecture is proposed. The photoreceptive area forms a honeycomb-like shape. Performance of a hexagonal CCD-type MCG BSI sensor is examined by simulations. The highest frame rate is theoretically more than 1Gfps. For the near future, a stacked hybrid CCD/CMOS MCG image sensor seems most promising. The associated problems are discussed. A fine TSV process is the key technology to realize the structure.
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Last update: 7 May 2013
