Search results for " Sensor"
showing 10 items of 1714 documents
Detection and elimination of UHI effects in long temperature records from villages – A case study from Tivissa, Spain
2019
Abstract Since villages are usually regarded as part of the rural area, associated temperature records are assumed to be free of urban influences and might be used as unbiased reference data for city records. However, based on two years of data from a high temporal and spatial resolution sensor network, this study proves the development of a substantial UHI in the Spanish village Tivissa with intensities of >1.5 K in summer Tmin and Tmax compared to a rural reference. Hosting a meteorological station that has been relocated several times within Tivissa during its >100-year history, we here detail a method to remove UHI biases at past measurement sites to create a more reliable rural tempera…
Mean Radiant Temperature Measurements through Small Black Globes under Forced Convection Conditions
2021
One of the most critical variables in the field of thermal comfort measurements is the mean radiant temperature which is typically measured with a standard 150 mm black globe thermometer. This is also the reference instrument required for the assessment of heat stress conditions by means of the well-known Wet Bulb Globe Temperature index (WBGT). However, one of the limitations of this method is represented by the relatively long response time. This is why in recent years there has been a more and more pressing need of smart sensors for controlling Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, and for pocket heat stress meters (e.g., WBGT meters provided with table tennis balls). …
Application of an O-ring pinch device as a constant-pressure inlet (CPI) for airborne sampling
2020
We present a novel and compact design of a constant-pressure inlet (CPI) developed for use in airborne aerosol mass spectrometry. In particular, the inlet system is optimized for aerodynamic lenses commonly used in aerosol mass spectrometers, in which efficient focusing of aerosol particles into a vacuum chamber requires a precisely controlled lens pressure, typically of a few hectopascals. The CPI device can also be used in condensation particle counters (CPCs), cloud condensation nucleus counters (CCNCs), and gas-phase sampling instruments across a wide range of altitudes and inlet pressures. The constant pressure is achieved by changing the inner diameter of a properly scaled O-ring that…
A reliable CSMA protocol for high performance broadcast communications in a WSN
2014
Wireless Sensor Networks have been identified as a promising technology to efficiently perform distributed monitoring, tracking and control tasks. In order to accomplish them, since fast decisions are generally required, high values of throughput must be obtained. Additionally, a high packet reception rate is important to avoid wasting energy due to unsuccessful transmissions. These communication requirements are more easily satisfied by exploiting the broadcast nature of the wireless medium, which allows several simultaneous receptions through a unique node transmission. We propose a Medium Access Control protocol that ensures, simultaneously, high values of throughput and a high packet re…
Efficient distributed average consensus in wireless sensor networks
2020
International audience; Computing the distributed average consensus in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is investigated in this article. This problem, which is both natural and important, plays a significant role in various application fields such as mobile agents and fleet vehicle coordination, network synchronization, distributed voting and decision, load balancing of divisible loads in distributed computing network systems, and so on. By and large, the average consensus' objective is to have all nodes in the network converged to the average value of the initial nodes' measurements based only on local nodes' information states. In this paper, we introduce a fully distributed algorithm to a…
A case-control evaluation of sensory profile among preschool children affected by autism spectrum disorder
2019
Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurobehavioral syndromes caused by a developmental disorder, biologically determined, with a very early onset and deficit mainly related to social communication and interaction.There is a considerable amount of literature on ASD suggesting abnormal sensory experience as a basic symptom, as also reported by the DSM-5 and ICD-10.The current case-control study aimed to investigate the sensory perception skills in preschool children affected by ASD compared with a control group of typical developing children.Materials and methods: The study sample was composed of 42 children, subdivided into two groups: 21 ASD (12 males); 21 typical developing (T…
Enabling Real-Time Computation of Psycho-Acoustic Parameters in Acoustic Sensors Using Convolutional Neural Networks
2020
Sensor networks have become an extremely useful tool for monitoring and analysing many aspects of our daily lives. Noise pollution levels are very important today, especially in cities where the number of inhabitants and disturbing sounds are constantly increasing. Psycho-acoustic parameters are a fundamental tool for assessing the degree of discomfort produced by different sounds and, combined with wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs), could enable, for example, the efficient implementation of acoustic discomfort maps within smart cities. However, the continuous monitoring of psycho-acoustic parameters to create time-dependent discomfort maps requires a high computational demand that …
On the feasibility of personal audio systems over a network of distributed loudspeakers
2018
Los sistemas de reproducción de audio personal se ocupan de la creación de zonas sonoras personales dentro de una habitación sin necesidad de utilizar auriculares. Estos sistemas utilizan un conjunto de altavoces y diseñan los filtros necesarios en cada altavoz con el fin de que la señal de audio deseada llegue a cada persona en la sala lo más libre de interferencias posible. Existen propuestas muy interesantes en la literatura que hacen uso de arrays circulares o lineales, pero en este trabajo estudiamos el problema considerando una red de altavoces distribuidos controlados por un conjunto de nodos acústicos, que pueden intercambiar información a través de una red. Enunciamos el modelo de …
Multi-sensory approaches to (audio) describing the visual arts
2012
Making art accessible to blind patrons requires the ability to convey explicit and implicit visual messages through non-visual forms. Audio description is often seen as the best way to offer visual texts to blind people; however, one may query whether words alone are sufficient to convey the subtleties of art and to transport the emotional charge such works offer. It is a fact that the dialogue between words and touch may allow these particular “readers” to “see” art in its tangible forms, but perhaps more is needed if one is to give them the opportunity to live the art experience to the full. This article discusses different multi-sensory approaches to making art available to visually impa…
The impact of a concurrent motor task on auditory and visual temporal discrimination tasks
2016
Previous studies have shown the presence of an interference effect on temporal perception when participants are required to simultaneously execute a nontemporal task. Such interference likely has an attentional source. In the present work, a temporal discrimination task was performed alone or together with a self-paced finger-tapping task used as concurrent, nontemporal task. Temporal durations were presented in either the visual or the auditory modality, and two standard durations (500 and 1, 500 ms) were used. For each experimental condition, the participant’s threshold was estimated and analyzed. The mean Weber fraction was higher in the visual than in the auditory modality, but only for…