Sensors, Volume 14, Issue 3

We demonstrate an integrated fiber optic photoluminescence sensing platform using a novel single-multi-mode fiber coupler (SMFC)-based probe with high collection efficiency for fluorescence signals. The SMFC, prepared using fused biconical taper tech...

In this paper, the authors investigate the role that smart devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, can play in identifying activities of daily living. A feasibility study involving N = 10 participants was carried out to evaluate the devices...

A tracking service like asset management is essential in a dynamic hospital environment consisting of numerous mobile assets (e.g., wheelchairs or infusion pumps) that are continuously relocated throughout a hospital. The tracking service is accompli...

This article presents a study on analyzing body movements by using a single accelerometer sensor. The investigated categories of body movements belong to the Laban Effort Framework: Strong—Light, Free—Bound and Sudden—Sustained. All body movements we...

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are generally nano-scale tubes comprising a network of carbon atoms in a cylindrical setting that compared with silicon counterparts present outstanding characteristics such as high mechanical strength, high sensing capability...

There is a growing interest in 3D content following the recent developments in 3D movies, 3D TVs and 3D smartphones. However, 3D content creation is still dominated by professionals, due to the high cost of 3D motion capture instruments. The availabi...

Ceramic gas sensors used for measuring ambient air quality have features suitable for practical applications such as healthcare and air quality management, but have a major drawback—large power consumption to preheat the sensor for accurate measureme...

The site displacement due to ocean tidal loading is regarded as one of the largest uncertainties in precise geodetic positioning measurements, among which the effect of minor ocean tides (MOT), except for the 11 main tidal constituents, are sometimes...

The ubiquity of mobile devices brings forth a sensing paradigm, participatory sensing, to collect and interpret sensory information from the environment. Participants join in multifarious sensing tasks and share their data. The sensing result can be...

Acoustic techniques have been used for many years to find and locate leaks in buried water distribution systems. Hydrophones and accelerometers are typically used as sensors. Although geophones could be used as well, they are not generally used for l...

Objective: To develop a convenient; sensitive; accurate; and economical technique for genotyping of hepatitis B viruses (HBVs). Methods: The mercapto-modified B1; B2; C1; and C2-specific genotyping probes consisted of two probes for each HBV genotype...

Interference is a serious cause of performance degradation for IEEE802.15.4 devices. The effect of concurrent transmissions in IEEE 802.15.4 has been generally investigated by means of simulation or experimental activities. In this paper, a mathemati...

The special impacting filter (SIF) with IIR structure has been used to demodulate ABSK signals. The key points of SIF, including the resonance circuit’s high Q value and the “slope-phase discrimination” character of the filter sideband, are demonstra...

The Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) area is in constant evolution, providing new technologies to users and enhancing the level of security and comfort that is ensured by house platforms. The Ambient Assisted Living for All (AAL4ALL) project aims to dev...

Multivariate quadratic (MQ) cryptography requires the use of long public and private keys to ensure a sufficient security level, but this is not favorable to embedded systems, which have limited system resources. Recently, various approaches to MQ cr...

We outline the development and the application in a field test of the Autonomous Fibre-Optic Rotational Seismograph (AFORS), which utilizes the Sagnac effect for a direct measurement of the seismic-origin rotations of the ground. The main advantage o...

Gyroscopes have been proposed as sensors for ambulatory gait analysis and functional electrical stimulation systems. These applications often require detection of the initial contact (IC) of the foot with the floor and/or final contact or foot off (F...

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is one of the main methods used for electronic nose pattern recognition. However, poor classification performance is common in classification and recognition when using regular PCA. This paper aims to improve the cl...

Contemporary wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have evolved into large and complex systems and are one of the main technologies used in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. Extensive research on WSNs has led to the development of diverse...

In the present work, NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures are fabricated in three dimensions (3D) on nickel foam by the hydrothermal method. The nanomaterial was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron s...

Gravity surveys are an important research topic in geophysics and geodynamics. This paper investigates a method for high accuracy large scale gravity anomaly data reconstruction. Based on the airborne gravimetry technology, a flight test was carried...

Calibration between color camera and 3D Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) equipment is an essential process for data fusion. The goal of this paper is to improve the calibration accuracy between a camera and a 3D LIDAR. In particular, we are intere...

The participation of users within AAL environments is increasing thanks to the capabilities of the current wearable devices. Furthermore, the significance of considering user’s preferences, context conditions and device’s capabilities help smart envi...

In this paper, a precise real-time temperature control system based on infrared (IR) thermometry for domestic induction cooking is presented. The temperature in the vessel constitutes the control variable of the closed-loop power control system imple...

The large expansion of the robotic field in the last decades has created a growing interest in the research and development of tactile sensing solutions for robot hand and body integration. Piezoresistive composites are one of the most widely employe...

This paper addresses the problem of modeling maneuvering target motion in tracking applications. A target trajectory can typically be divided into segments with different dynamic motion modes, such as a constant velocity motion, a constant accelerati...

A bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro, which is inspired by the Chinese traditional bell, is a kind of axisymmetric shell resonator gyroscope. Its sensitive element is a vibratory-like Chinese traditional bell, using a piezoelectric element on th...

This paper presents a visual measurement method able to sense 1D rigid body displacements with very high resolutions, large ranges and high processing rates. Sub-pixelic resolution is obtained thanks to a structured pattern placed on the target. The...

This paper introduces the design, implementation, and performance analysis of the scalable and mobility-aware hybrid protocol named boarder node medium access control (BN-MAC) for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which leverages the characteristics...

A computational model for radio wave propagation through tree orchards is presented. Trees are modeled as collections of branches, geometrically approximated by cylinders, whose dimensions are determined on the basis of measurements in a cherry orcha...

Quorum sensing is a unique bacterial communication system which permits bacteria to synchronize their behaviour in accordance with the population density. The operation of this communication network involves the use of diffusible autoinducer molecule...

Detection of early warning signals for the imminent failure of large and complex engineered structures is a daunting challenge with many open research questions. In this paper we report on novel ways to perform Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of f...

Using a single-stranded region tracing system, single-molecule DNA synthesis reactions were directly observed in microflow channels. The direct single-molecule observations of DNA synthesis were labeled with a fusion protein consisting of the ssDNA-b...

The traditional handmade catalytic combustion gas sensor has some problems such as a pairing difficulty, poor consistency, high power consumption, and not being interchangeable. To address these issues, integrated double catalytic combustion of alcoh...

In this study, a polarization-control setup for intensity-resolved guided mode resonance sensors is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation data based on rigorous coupled wave appro...

An endoscope/fiberscope is a minimally invasive tool used for directly observing tissues in areas deep inside the human body where access is limited. However, this tool only yields visual information. If force feedback information were also available...

In this study, we examined the comprehensive detection of numerous volatile molecules based on the olfactory information constructed by using olfaction-inspired sensor technology. The sensor system can simultaneously detect multiple odors by the sepa...

Piezoelectric material has been emerging as a popular building block in MEMS devices owing to its unique mechanical and electrical material properties. However, the reliability of MEMS devices under buckling deformation environments remains elusive a...

Sliding tactile perception is a basic function for human beings to determine the mechanical properties of object surfaces and recognize materials. Imitating this process, this paper proposes a novel finger-shaped tactile sensor based on a thin piezoe...

Under highly dynamic conditions, the star-spots on the image sensor of a star tracker move across many pixels during the exposure time, which will reduce star detection sensitivity and increase star location errors. However, this kind of effect can b...

The percentage of elderly people in European countries is increasing. Such conjuncture affects socio-economic structures and creates demands for resourceful solutions, such as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), which is a possible methodology to foster h...

Non-invasive real-time observations and the evaluation of living cell conditions and functions are increasingly demanded in life sciences. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors detect the refractive index (RI) changes on the surface of sensor chips...

This work presents a hybrid (experimental-computational) application for improving the vibration behavior of structural components using a lightweight multilayer composite. The vibration behavior of a flat steel plate has been improved by the gluing...

Visual odometry provides astronauts with accurate knowledge of their position and orientation. Wearable astronaut navigation systems should be simple and compact. Therefore, monocular vision methods are preferred over stereo vision systems, commonly...

Over-the-air dissemination of code updates in wireless sensor networks have been researchers’ point of interest in the last few years, and, more importantly, security challenges toward the remote propagation of code updating have occupied the majorit...

This study aimed to explore the application of infrared thermography in combination with ambulatory wearable monitoring of temperature and relative humidity, to assess the residual limb-to-liner interface in lower-limb prosthesis users. Five male tra...

This paper reviews the state of the art in piezoelectric energy harvesting. It presents the basics of piezoelectricity and discusses materials choice. The work places emphasis on material operating modes and device configurations, from resonant to...

A review of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) transducers based on tapered fibers that have been developed in the last years is presented. The devices have proved their good performance (specifically, in terms of sensitivity) and their versatility...

Relay sensor networks are often employed in end-to-end healthcare applications to facilitate the information flow between patient worn sensors and the medical data center. Medium access control (MAC) protocols, based on random linear network coding (...

Recently, the Vernier effect has been proved to be very efficient for significantly improving the sensitivity and the limit of detection (LOD) of chemical, biochemical and gas photonic sensors. In this paper a review of compact and efficient photonic...