For as much as sensing technology is
already enhancing our lives, the future promises even more.
Take that smartphone, for example.
Currently, it contains several very useful sensors. But, noted Tim Day, CEO/CTO
of Daylight Solutions during a session on “The Future of Sensing” at the recent
SPIE DSS event in Baltimore, by 2020, it’s easy to envision hundreds of sensors
on such a device.
Demands for personal fitness monitoring and personalized medicine are big drivers, Day said.
Today’s sensors can tell
us a lot. For example: How quickly did I go from jog to sprint today compared
to yesterday? How close am I to my destination? What is that constellation?
But we want to know much more: blood
sugar levels, temperature, blood pressure, air quality, and on and on. And we
will be able to, via wearables (see Scientific American on that topic) and other technology using
photonics.
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| Thermal images captured with Opgal's smartphone attachment can be presented in a variety of color schemes as above, or in black-and-white. |
In another aisle in the Expo, the
Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University demonstrated the first major upgrade in prosthetic limbs since World War
II -- with the help of a prototype robot called Robo Sally. The robot was fitted with modular prosthetic limbs with
tele-operated feedback controls, using technology initiated with significant investment
from DARPA. (See a video demonstration of Robo Sally.)
On Robo Sally, the arms can be operated
remotely as well from up to a half mile away, fulfilling tasks such as bomb
disposal or checking chemical spills.
Looking further into the future,
food safety is another area where sensors – specifically, using hyperspectral
sensing -- have a lot to offer.
Moon Kim of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service, in a conference presentation in the
Sensing Technologies and Applications (STA) symposium, and David Bannon, Headwall
Photonics, in the “The Future of Sensing” session told how. (Scan the news from SPIE DSS 2014 for synopses of Moon's and other papers from STA and its sister symposium, Defense + Security.)
Agricultural
food products can be contaminated with pathogens at any point in
the growing, harvesting, packaging, and preparation processes.
In a paper co-authored with Colm
Everard of University College Dublin, Moon described using hyperspectral
imaging techniques to monitor food and detect pathogens in greens and other vegetables.
Bannon’s list of applications included
mandated poultry inspections, looking for histamines in fish, and removal of
foreign objects such as glass or metal during processing.
A laser-based sensing
system for detecting gas leaks has been monitoring the millions of miles of
natural gas pipelines in the United States for the last two decades. In another
conference paper, Michael Frish of Physical Sciences described a similar
system his company has developed for application in the CO2
pipelines that are used in extracting oil and natural gas.
The detectors may be permanent or
mobile, even deployed on UAVs (unmanned autonomous vehicles), or they may be
open-path sensors that stand guard at intervals along a pipeline. When a leak
is detected, these wireless, solar-powered sensors will generate an alert
within one minute.
Frish said that the version now being
tested at various locations is expected to become an important tool as the
movement of carbon dioxide expands with carbon sequestration and increasing use
of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in oil and natural gas extraction
This quick list includes 18
applications of photonics-enabled sensing. Read more about optical sensors in the April issue of SPIE Professional.
What applications for a better
world do you see at work or on the horizon?
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