Search results for " Optics"
showing 10 items of 5880 documents
HybridPLAY: A New Technology to Foster Outdoors Physical Activity, Verbal Communication and Teamwork
2015
This paper presents HybridPLAY, a novel technology composed of a sensor and mobile-based video games that transforms urban playgrounds into game scenarios. With this technology we aim to stimulate physical activity and playful learning by creating an entertaining environment in which users can actively participate and collaborate. HybridPLAY is different from other existing technologies that enhance playgrounds, as it is not integrated in them but can be attached to the different elements of the playgrounds, making its use more ubiquitous (i.e., not restricted to the playgrounds). HybridPLAY was born in 2007 as an artistic concept, and evolved after different phases of research and testing …
Optimizing the MAC Protocol in Localization Systems Based on IEEE 802.15.4 Networks
2017
Radio frequency signals are commonly used in the development of indoor localization systems. The infrastructure of these systems includes some beacons placed at known positions that exchange radio packets with users to be located. When the system is implemented using wireless sensor networks, the wireless transceivers integrated in the network motes are usually based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. But, the CSMA-CA, which is the basis for the medium access protocols in this category of communication systems, is not suitable when several users want to exchange bursts of radio packets with the same beacon to acquire the radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) values needed in the location proce…
Power Consumption Analysis of Operating Systems for Wireless Sensor Networks
2010
In this paper four wireless sensor network operating systems are compared in terms of power consumption. The analysis takes into account the most common operating systems-TinyOS v1.0, TinyOS v2.0, Mantis and Contiki-running on Tmote Sky and MICAz devices. With the objective of ensuring a fair evaluation, a benchmark composed of four applications has been developed, covering the most typical tasks that a Wireless Sensor Network performs. The results show the instant and average current consumption of the devices during the execution of these applications. The experimental measurements provide a good insight into the power mode in which the device components are running at every moment, and t…
Magnetic Field Sensors Based on Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) Technology: Applications in Electrical Current Sensing
2009
The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics can be understood as a global recognition to the rapid development of the Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), from both the physics and engineering points of view. Behind the utilization of GMR structures as read heads for massive storage magnetic hard disks, important applications as solid state magnetic sensors have emerged. Low cost, compatibility with standard CMOS technologies and high sensitivity are common advantages of these sensors. This way, they have been successfully applied in a lot different environments. In this work, we are trying to collect the Spanish contributions to the progress of the research related to the GMR based sensors covering, among o…
DRIFTS Sensor: Soil Carbon Validation at Large Scale (Pantelleria, Italy)
2013
A fast and accurate measurement of soil carbon is needed in current scientific issues. Today there are many sensors suitable for these purposes, but choosing the appropriate sensor depends on the spatial scale at which the studies are conducted. There are few detailed studies that validate these types of measures allowing their immediate use. Here it is validated the quick use of a sensor in execution at Pantelleria, chosen for size, use and variability of the parameter measured, to give an operational tool for carbon stocks studies. The DRIFT sensor used here has been validated in the first 60 cm of the soil of the whole island, and it has shown predictivity higher than 90%.
Packet loss recovery in an indoor Free Space Optics link using rateless codes
2014
Free Space Optics (FSO) systems present some important advantages if compared to Radio Frequency links, but they can be affected by several impairments that degrade the link quality and availability. In particular, due to temporary interruptions of the line-of-sight condition between the transmitter and the receiver, packet loss can occur during data transmission. In this work, we present an indoor Free Space Optics link, in which we have systematically generated interruptions of the beam. We demonstrate how the application of the most recent rateless codes, i.e., RaptorQ codes, can strongly improve the link quality by reducing packet loss. In particular, results show that the Packet Error …
Journeys from quantum optics to quantum technology
2017
Sir Peter Knight is a pioneer in quantum optics which has now grown to an important branch of modern physics to study the foundations and applications of quantum physics. He is leading an effort to develop new technologies from quantum mechanics. In this collection of essays, we recall the time we were working with him as a postdoc or a PhD student and look at how the time with him has influenced our research.
The Use of Accelerometers and Gyroscopes to Estimate Hip and Knee Angles on Gait Analysis
2014
In this paper the performance of a sensor system, which has been developed to estimate hip and knee angles and the beginning of the gait phase, have been investigated. The sensor system consists of accelerometers and gyroscopes. A new algorithm was developed in order to avoid the error accumulation due to the gyroscopes drift and vibrations due to the ground contact at the beginning of the stance phase. The proposed algorithm have been tested and compared to some existing algorithms on over-ground walking trials with a commercial device for assisted gait. The results have shown the good accuracy of the angles estimation, also in high angle rate movement.
Analyses of Dual Polarization WDM and SCM Radio over Fiber and Radio over FSO for C-RAN Architecture
2016
En este trabajo se simulan y verifican experimentalmente los esquemas de transmisión para una Arquitectura de Red de Acceso Radio Centralizada (C-RAN) basados en la combinación de dos tecnologías: Radio sobre Fibra (RoF) y Radio sobre FSO (RoFSO). Las configuraciones propuestas se optimizan para la evolución a largo plazo (LTE) con un ancho de banda de 20 MHz utilizando una modulación de amplitud en cuadratura de 64-QAM en términos de magnitud de vector de error (EVM). En primer lugar, se comparan las mediciones de la multiplexación por división de polarización mediante la combinación de RoF y RoFSO (PDM-RoF/FSO) con los modelos de simulación. Esto se amplía con la combinación de PDM-Multip…
A Non-Invasive Thermal Drift Compensation Technique Applied to a Spin-Valve Magnetoresistive Current Sensor
2011
A compensation method for the sensitivity drift of a magnetoresistive (MR) Wheatstone bridge current sensor is proposed. The technique was carried out by placing a ruthenium temperature sensor and the MR sensor to be compensated inside a generalized impedance converter circuit (GIC). No internal modification of the sensor bridge arms is required so that the circuit is capable of compensating practical industrial sensors. The method is based on the temperature modulation of the current supplied to the bridge, which improves previous solutions based on constant current compensation. Experimental results are shown using a microfabricated spin-valve MR current sensor. The temperature compensati…