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State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017

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 (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 54126

Special Issue Editor

Optoelectronic Engineering, School of Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, Kami 782-8502, Japan
Interests: optical fiber sensors and devices; biophotonic sensors; optical networks; micro- and nano-devices; polymer photonics; optical sensors for autonomous driving
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview on the “State-of-the-Art Sensor Technology in Japan 2017”. Research articles are invited, which will provide a consolidated, up-to-date perspective in this area. The Special Issue will publish full research, review, and other highly-rated manuscripts addressing the abovementioned aim. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Optical sensors

  • Biosensors

  • Chemical sensors

  • Physical sensors

  • NEMS/MEMS sensors

  • Sensor arrays and networks

  • Automotive applications

  • Aerospace applications

  • Advanced manufacturing applications

  • Environmental applications

  • Biomedical and human assistive applications

Prof. Dr. Yasufumi Enami
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short 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 thoroughly refereed through a single-blind 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 semimonthly 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 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • optical fiber and waveguide sensors

  • chemical and biosensors

  • physical sensors

  • sensor networks

  • remote sensors

Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2719 KiB  
Article
Synchronized High-Speed Vision Sensor Network for Expansion of Field of View
by Akihito Noda, Satoshi Tabata, Masatoshi Ishikawa and Yuji Yamakawa
Sensors 2018, 18(4), 1276; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18041276 - 21 Apr 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5688
Abstract
We propose a 500-frames-per-second high-speed vision (HSV) sensor network that acquires frames at a timing that is precisely synchronized across the network. Multiple vision sensor nodes, individually comprising a camera and a PC, are connected via Ethernet for data transmission and for clock [...] Read more.
We propose a 500-frames-per-second high-speed vision (HSV) sensor network that acquires frames at a timing that is precisely synchronized across the network. Multiple vision sensor nodes, individually comprising a camera and a PC, are connected via Ethernet for data transmission and for clock synchronization. A network of synchronized HSV sensors provides a significantly expanded field-of-view compared with that of each individual HSV sensor. In the proposed system, the shutter of each camera is controlled based on the clock of the PC locally provided inside the node, and the shutters are globally synchronized using the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) over the network. A theoretical analysis and experiment results indicate that the shutter trigger skew among the nodes is a few tens of microseconds at most, which is significantly smaller than the frame interval of 1000-fps-class high-speed cameras. Experimental results obtained with the proposed system comprising four nodes demonstrated the ability to capture the propagation of a small displacement along a large-scale structure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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14 pages, 3289 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of a Sensor System for Detecting Humans Trapped under Rubble: A Pilot Study
by Di Zhang, Salvatore Sessa, Ritaro Kasai, Sarah Cosentino, Cimarelli Giacomo, Yasuaki Mochida, Hiroya Yamada, Michele Guarnieri and Atsuo Takanishi
Sensors 2018, 18(3), 852; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18030852 - 13 Mar 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 9208
Abstract
Rapid localization of injured survivors by rescue teams to prevent death is a major issue. In this paper, a sensor system for human rescue including three different types of sensors, a CO2 sensor, a thermal camera, and a microphone, is proposed. The [...] Read more.
Rapid localization of injured survivors by rescue teams to prevent death is a major issue. In this paper, a sensor system for human rescue including three different types of sensors, a CO2 sensor, a thermal camera, and a microphone, is proposed. The performance of this system in detecting living victims under the rubble has been tested in a high-fidelity simulated disaster area. Results show that the CO2 sensor is useful to effectively reduce the possible concerned area, while the thermal camera can confirm the correct position of the victim. Moreover, it is believed that the use of microphones in connection with other sensors would be of great benefit for the detection of casualties. In this work, an algorithm to recognize voices or suspected human noise under rubble has also been developed and tested. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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21 pages, 1960 KiB  
Article
Infrastructure-Less Communication Platform for Off-The-Shelf Android Smartphones
by Takuma Oide, Toru Abe and Takuo Suganuma
Sensors 2018, 18(3), 776; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18030776 - 04 Mar 2018
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3985
Abstract
As smartphones and other small portable devices become more sophisticated and popular, opportunities for communication and information sharing among such device users have increased. In particular, since it is known that infrastructure-less device-to-device (D2D) communication platforms consisting only of such devices are excellent [...] Read more.
As smartphones and other small portable devices become more sophisticated and popular, opportunities for communication and information sharing among such device users have increased. In particular, since it is known that infrastructure-less device-to-device (D2D) communication platforms consisting only of such devices are excellent in terms of, for example, bandwidth efficiency, efforts are being made to merge their information sharing capabilities with conventional infrastructure. However, efficient multi-hop communication is difficult with the D2D communication protocol, and many conventional D2D communication platforms require modifications of the protocol and terminal operating systems (OSs). In response to these issues, this paper reports on a proposed tree-structured D2D communication platform for Android devices that combines Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi functions. The proposed platform, which is expected to be used with general Android 4.0 (or higher) OS equipped terminals, makes it possible to construct an ad hoc network instantaneously without sharing prior knowledge among participating devices. We will show the feasibility of our proposed platform through its design and demonstrate the implementation of a prototype using real devices. In addition, we will report on our investigation into communication delays and stability based on the number of hops and on terminal performance through experimental confirmation experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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11 pages, 3342 KiB  
Article
Earable TEMPO: A Novel, Hands-Free Input Device that Uses the Movement of the Tongue Measured with a Wearable Ear Sensor
by Kazuhiro Taniguchi, Hisashi Kondo, Mami Kurosawa and Atsushi Nishikawa
Sensors 2018, 18(3), 733; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18030733 - 01 Mar 2018
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5560
Abstract
In this study, an earphone-type interface named “earable TEMPO” was developed for hands-free operation, wherein the user can control the device by simply pushing the tongue against the roof of the mouth for about one second. This interface can be used to start [...] Read more.
In this study, an earphone-type interface named “earable TEMPO” was developed for hands-free operation, wherein the user can control the device by simply pushing the tongue against the roof of the mouth for about one second. This interface can be used to start and stop the music from a portable audio player. The earable TEMPO uses an earphone-type sensor equipped with a light emitting diode (LED) and a phototransistor to optically measure shape variations that occur in the external auditory meatus when the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth. To evaluate the operation of the earable TEMPO, experiments were performed on five subjects (men and women aged 22–58) while resting, chewing gum (representing mastication), and walking. The average accuracy was 100% while resting and chewing and 99% while walking. The precision was 100% under all conditions. The average recall value of the five subjects was 92%, 90%, and 48% while resting, masticating, and walking, respectively. All subjects were reliably able to perform the action of pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth. The measured shape variations in the ear canal were highly reproducible, indicating that this method is suitable for various applications such as controlling a portable audio player. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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22 pages, 6583 KiB  
Article
A Liquid-Surface-Based Three-Axis Inclination Sensor for Measurement of Stage Tilt Motions
by Yuki Shimizu, Satoshi Kataoka, Tatsuya Ishikawa, Yuan-Liu Chen, Xiuguo Chen, Hiraku Matsukuma and Wei Gao
Sensors 2018, 18(2), 398; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020398 - 30 Jan 2018
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6728
Abstract
In this paper a new concept of a liquid-surface-based three-axis inclination sensor for evaluation of angular error motion of a precision linear slide, which is often used in the field of precision engineering such as ultra-precision machine tools, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and [...] Read more.
In this paper a new concept of a liquid-surface-based three-axis inclination sensor for evaluation of angular error motion of a precision linear slide, which is often used in the field of precision engineering such as ultra-precision machine tools, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and so on, is proposed. In the liquid-surface-based three-axis inclination sensor, a reference float mounting a line scale grating having periodic line grating structures is made to float over a liquid surface, while its three-axis angular motion is measured by using an optical sensor head based on the three-axis laser autocollimation capable of measuring three-axis angular motion of the scale grating. As the first step of research, in this paper, theoretical analysis on the angular motion of the reference float about each axis has been carried out based on simplified kinematic models to evaluate the possibility of realizing the proposed concept of a three-axis inclination sensor. In addition, based on the theoretical analyses results, a prototype three-axis inclination sensor has been designed and developed. Through some basic experiments with the prototype, the possibility of simultaneous three-axis inclination measurement by the proposed concept has been verified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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10076 KiB  
Article
Hazardous Object Detection by Using Kinect Sensor in a Handle-Type Electric Wheelchair
by Jeyeon Kim, Takaaki Hasegawa and Yuta Sakamoto
Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2936; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122936 - 18 Dec 2017
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4902
Abstract
To ensure the safety of a handle-type electric wheelchair (hereinafter, electric wheelchair), this paper describes the applicability of using a Kinect sensor. Ensuring the mobility of elderly people is a particularly important issue to be resolved. An electric wheelchair is useful as a [...] Read more.
To ensure the safety of a handle-type electric wheelchair (hereinafter, electric wheelchair), this paper describes the applicability of using a Kinect sensor. Ensuring the mobility of elderly people is a particularly important issue to be resolved. An electric wheelchair is useful as a means of transportation for elderly people. Considering that the users of electric wheelchairs are elderly people, it is important to ensure the safety of electric wheelchairs at night. To ensure the safety of an electric wheelchair at night, we constructed a hazardous object detection system using commercially available and inexpensive Kinect sensors and examined the applicability of the system. We examined warning timing with consideration to the cognition, judgment, and operation time of elderly people. Based on this, a hazardous object detection area was determined. Furthermore, the detection of static and dynamic hazardous objects was carried out at night and the results showed that the system was able to detect with high accuracy. We also conducted experiments related to dynamic hazardous object detection during daytime. From the above, it showed that the system could be applicable to ensuring the safety of the handle-type electric wheelchair. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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12117 KiB  
Article
Super-Resolution of Plant Disease Images for the Acceleration of Image-based Phenotyping and Vigor Diagnosis in Agriculture
by Kyosuke Yamamoto, Takashi Togami and Norio Yamaguchi
Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2557; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112557 - 06 Nov 2017
Cited by 77 | Viewed by 9551
Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) are a very promising branch of technology, and they have been utilized in agriculture—in cooperation with image processing technologies—for phenotyping and vigor diagnosis. One of the problems in the utilization of UAVs for agricultural purposes is the [...] Read more.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) are a very promising branch of technology, and they have been utilized in agriculture—in cooperation with image processing technologies—for phenotyping and vigor diagnosis. One of the problems in the utilization of UAVs for agricultural purposes is the limitation in flight time. It is necessary to fly at a high altitude to capture the maximum number of plants in the limited time available, but this reduces the spatial resolution of the captured images. In this study, we applied a super-resolution method to the low-resolution images of tomato diseases to recover detailed appearances, such as lesions on plant organs. We also conducted disease classification using high-resolution, low-resolution, and super-resolution images to evaluate the effectiveness of super-resolution methods in disease classification. Our results indicated that the super-resolution method outperformed conventional image scaling methods in spatial resolution enhancement of tomato disease images. The results of disease classification showed that the accuracy attained was also better by a large margin with super-resolution images than with low-resolution images. These results indicated that our approach not only recovered the information lost in low-resolution images, but also exerted a beneficial influence on further image analysis. The proposed approach will accelerate image-based phenotyping and vigor diagnosis in the field, because it not only saves time to capture images of a crop in a cultivation field but also secures the accuracy of these images for further analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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4154 KiB  
Article
TAMRA/TAMRA Fluorescence Quenching Systems for the Activity Assay of Alkaline Phosphatase
by Akio Shiba, Emiko Kinoshita-Kikuta, Eiji Kinoshita and Tohru Koike
Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1877; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081877 - 15 Aug 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 7630
Abstract
We introduce two types of fluorescence-quenching assay for alkaline phosphatases (APs) by using a carboxytetramethyl-rhodamine (TAMRA)-labeled phosphate-binding tag molecule (TAMRA-Phos-tag). In the first assay, TAMRA-labeled O-phosphorylethanolamine (TAMRA-PEA) was used as an artificial AP-substrate. TAMRA-Phos-tag specifically captured TAMRA-PEA to form a 1:1 complex [...] Read more.
We introduce two types of fluorescence-quenching assay for alkaline phosphatases (APs) by using a carboxytetramethyl-rhodamine (TAMRA)-labeled phosphate-binding tag molecule (TAMRA-Phos-tag). In the first assay, TAMRA-labeled O-phosphorylethanolamine (TAMRA-PEA) was used as an artificial AP-substrate. TAMRA-Phos-tag specifically captured TAMRA-PEA to form a 1:1 complex at pH 7.4; the intensity of the fluorescence peak of the complex at 580 nm (λex = 523 nm) was significantly reduced to 32% of the average value for the two individual components as a result of the mutual approach of the TAMRA moieties. As TAMRA-PEA was dephosphorylated by AP, the resulting TAMRA-labeled ethanolamine dissociated and the fluorescence increased in a manner dependent on the AP dose and the time. In the second assay, pyrophosphate (PP), a natural AP-substrate, was used as a bridging ligand to form a dimeric TAMRA-Phos-tag complex. The dimerization reduced the fluorescence intensity to 49% of that in the absence of PP. As pyrophosphate was hydrolyzed to two orthophosphate moieties by AP, the 580-nm fluorescence recovered in a time-dependent manner. By examining the initial slope of this time-dependent fluorescence recovery, we succeeded in evaluating the 50% inhibitory concentrations of orthovanadate toward two AP isozymes under near-physiological conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Japan 2017)
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