Basic gesture sensors can play a significant role as input units in mobile smart devices. However, they have to handle a wide variety of gestures while preserving the advantages of basic sensors. In this paper a user-determined approach to the design of a sparse optical gesture sensor is proposed. The statistical research on a study group of individuals includes the measurement of user-related parameters like the speed of a performed swipe (dynamic gesture) and the morphology of fingers. The obtained results, as well as other a priori requirements for an optical gesture sensor were further used in the design process. Several properties were examined using simulations or experimental verification. It was shown that the designed optical gesture sensor provides accurate localization of fingers, and recognizes a set of static and dynamic hand gestures using a relatively low level of power consumption.
We experimentally studied three different D-shape polymer optical fibres with an exposed core for their applications as surface plasmon resonance sensors. The first one was a conventional D-shape fibre with no microstructure while in two others the fibre core was surrounded by two rings of air holes. In one of the microstructured fibres we introduced special absorbing inclusions placed outside the microstructure to attenuate leaky modes. We compared the performance of the surface plasmon resonance sensors based on the three fibres. We showed that the fibre bending enhances the resonance in all investigated fibres. The measured sensitivity of about 610 nm/RIUfor the refractive index of glycerol solution around 1.350 is similar in all fabricated sensors. However, the spectral width of the resonance curve is significantly lower for the fibre with inclusions suppressing the leaky modes.
We experimentally studied three different D-shape polymer optical fibres with an exposed core for their applications as surface plasmon resonance sensors. The first one was a conventional D-shape fibre with no microstructure while in two others the fibre core was surrounded by two rings of air holes. In one of the microstructured fibres we introduced special absorbing inclusions placed outside the microstructure to attenuate leaky modes. We compared the performance of the surface plasmon resonance sensors based on the three fibres. We showed that the fibre bending enhances the resonance in all investigated fibres. The measured sensitivity of about 610 nm/RIU for the refractive index of glycerol solution around 1.350 is similar in all fabricated sensors. However, the spectral width of the resonance curve is significantly lower for the fibre with inclusions suppressing the leaky modes.
The Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) based temperature optical sensor has been designed and demonstrated. FBGs have been modelled and fabricated so as to convert the Bragg wavelength shift into the intensity domain. The main experimental setup consists of a filtering FBG and two scanning FBGs, respectively, left and right scanning FBG, whereby scanning FBGs are symmetrically located on the slopes of the filtering FBG. Such an approach allows for the modulation of power for the propagating optical signal depending on the ambient temperature at the scanning FBG location. A positive or negative change of power is determined by the spectral response of the FBG. Experimental research of the scanning FBGs’ sensitivities emphasized that the key issue is the filtering FBG. A different level of sensitivity could be achieved due to the spectral characteristic of the filtering FBG. Omitting advanced and high-cost devices, the FBG-based temperature sensor is presented. The FBG-based sensor setup could yield resolution of 1°C for the range of temperature 0.5°C to 52.5°C. The experimental study has been performed as a base for an easy-placed sensor system to monitor external parameters in real environment.
A high performance distributed sensor system with multi-intrusions simultaneous detection capability based on phase sensitive OTDR (Φ−OTDR) has been proposed and demonstrated. To improve system performance, three aspects have been investigated. Firstly, a model of one−dimensional impulse response of backscattered light and a Monte Carlo method have been used to study how the laser line width affects the system performance. Theoretical and experimental results show that the performances of the system, especially the signal−noise−ratio (SNR), decrease with the broadening of laser linewidth. Secondly, a temperature−compensated fibre Bragg grating with a 3 dB linewidth of 0.05 nm and a wavelength stability of 0.1 pm has been applied as an optical filter for effective denoising. Thirdly, a novel interrogation method for multi−intrusions simultaneous detection is proposed and applied in data denoising and processing. Consequently, benefiting from the three−in−one improvement, a high performance Φ−OTDR has been realized and four simultaneous applied intrusions have been detected and located at the same time along a 14 km sensing fibre with a spatial resolution of 6 m and a high SNR of 16 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most multifunctional Φ−OTDR up to now and it can be used for perimeter and/or pipeline intrusion real−time monitoring.
An interferometric structure based on a Dual-Resonance Long-Period Grating (DRLPG) within a Fiber Loop Mirror (FLM) is presented in this paper. Its purpose is to measure the refractive index (RI) of liquid analytes. The grating is the RI sensing probe, while the FLM serves as a band-pass filter. Due to the high extinction ratio of the FLM, amplitude measurements can be obtained, allowing implementation of the differential interrogation method to establish the sensitivity of the device. The use of a polarization controller makes it possible to fine-tune the interferometric peaks with respect to the two notches of the DRLPG. Precisely aligned configuration produces a maximum sensitivity of 3871.5 dB/RIU within the RI range of 1.3333 up to 1.3419 with linear sensor response.