Defense Systems April 16, 2019 More and more warfighters around the globe are starting to carry commercial smartphones leveraging the smartphone’s sensors to provide features ranging from blue force tracking to encrypted calling. The Pentagon has banned mobile devices from secure spaces, as smartphone sensors are a potential mother lode for hostile nation-states looking to gather mission-critical information. DOD is working with innovative industry partners on developing trusted sensors in form factors that include a wrist-worn wearable and an intelligent smartphone case that only allows interaction with approved, vetted and signed software. Because these devices operate independently of the vulnerable […]
Category Archives: Sensors
Biosensor Could Scale New Sensitivity Heights
Optical Society of America News April 4, 2019 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Australia) combined dielectric metasurfaces and hyperspectral imaging to develop an ultrasensitive label-free analytical platform for biosensing. The technique can acquire spatially resolved spectra from millions of image pixels and use smart data-processing tools to extract high-throughput digital sensing information at the unprecedented level of less than three molecules per μm2. Spectral data retrieval from a single image without using spectrometers enabled paving the way for portable diagnostic applications. This combination of nanophotonics and imaging optics extends the capabilities of dielectric metasurfaces to analyse biological entities and […]
Low-bandwidth radar technology provides improved detection of objects
Phys.org April 2, 2019 Researchers in Israel have demonstrated a ranging system which possesses superior range resolution that is almost completely free of bandwidth limitations. By sweeping over the coherence length of the transmitted signal, the partially coherent radar experimentally demonstrates an improvement of over an order of magnitude in resolving targets, compared to standard coherent radars with the same bandwidth. They developed a theoretical framework to show that the resolution could be further improved without a bound, revealing a tradeoff between bandwidth and sweep time. This concept offers solutions to problems which require high range resolution and accuracy, but […]
Radioactive material detected remotely using laser-induced electron avalanche breakdown
Phys.org March 22, 2019 Researchers at the University of Maryland present a proof-of-principle demonstration of a remote detection scheme using mid-infrared laser–induced avalanche breakdown of air. They observed on-off breakdown sensitivity to the presence of an external radioactive source. They correlated the shift of the temporal onset of avalanche to the degree of seed ionization from the source. They present scaling of the interaction with laser intensity, verify observed trends with numerical simulations, and discuss the use of mid-IR laser–driven electron avalanche breakdown to detect radioactive material at range. The method could be used to scan trucks and shipping containers […]
Army looks to put ground-penetrating radar on drones
Defense Systems March 20, 2019 Ground-penetrating radar devices have not yet been mounted on small unmanned systems primarily because of size, weight and power constraints. The Army wants the radar-on-a-chip technology to deliver a digital map that shows the shapes, sizes and features of objects in the environment and collect data on inert unexploded ordinance (UXO), synthetic tracer material and flora and fauna using radar on a chip operating between 100MHz and 5GHz attached to an unmanned system. The objects of interest may be buried, unburied or partially buried in a 20-square-meter area. The success of the program would alleviate […]
Tracking firefighters in burning buildings
Science Daily March 1, 2019 An international team of researchers (Canada, USA – UCLA, Czech Republic, Sweden) has developed a fire-retardant and self-extinguishing triboelectric nanogenerator (FRTENG), which can be utilized as a motion sensor and/or power generator in occupations such as oil drilling, firefighting or working in extreme temperature environments with flammable and combustible materials. The device takes advantage of the excellent thermal properties of carbon derived from resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogel. The FRTENG is not flammable, shows exceptional charge transfer characteristics, leading to a potential difference up to 80 V and a current density up to 25 µA/m2. When integrated into firefighter’s shoes, the […]
New technique offers rapid assessment of radiation exposure
Eurekalert January 9, 2019 Researchers at the North Carolina State University have developed a new technique which relies on testing crystalline insulators found in everything from thumb drives to smartphones. Because the technique is high-throughput, accurate and precise, it can adequately assess an individual’s exposure in about an hour. The insulator should be removed from its electronic device, cleaned and placed in a thermally stimulated luminescence reader, which collects spectra relating to the number of electrons found in the flaws inherent to the sample’s crystalline structure. That spectral data is then fed into a custom algorithm that calculates the sample’s […]
Invention promises airport security screening without queues
Australian National University December 14, 2018 Researchers in Australia have developed a proof-of-concept prototype device made with metasurfaces that can control the direction of electromagnetic waves to perform highly advanced sensing functions. It is arbitrarily tunable so that it can direct electromagnetic waves towards any direction or control multiple beams to perform different functions at the same time. It can sense the entire environment surrounding it with unprecedented precision. Future cameras could identify hazardous devices or dangerous chemicals in people’s carry-on baggage when they walk through an airport. Other applications could include smaller and safer sensors for driverless vehicles…read more. […]
Novel laser technology for microchip-size chemical sensors
Science Daily December 10, 2018 Researchers in Austria produced quantum cascade lasers which generate a frequency comb in the infrared range. With the help of an electrical signal of a specific frequency the quantum cascade lasers can be controlled to emit a series of light frequencies, which are all coupled together. The system is robust and can withstand temperature fluctuations, or reflections that send some of the light back into the laser. It can be easily miniaturized. The entire measuring system can be accommodated on a chip in millimeter format. The chip could be placed on a drone to measure […]
Color-changing fabric warns military about chemical agents
Eurekalert December 11, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (University of Cincinnati, University of Florida) is working with a polymer called Nafion which has unique structural properties that provide for electrical insulation and gas separation, while also promoting the passage of ions but at the same time, it hinders the transport of gases, like oxygen. The idea is to incorporate the naturally flexible Nafion membrane into a soldier’s clothes to detect chemical agents in the air while preventing them from interacting with the skin. Nafion could react with chemical warfare agents to form benign products when applied to […]