A sensor device, including a sensor having a sound transducer to emit sonic waves and convert received sonic waves to electrical signals. A sensor evaluation unit carries out surrounding-area monitoring during a normal operation of the sensor, by evaluating electrical signals of the sound transducer. During a monitoring mode of the sensor, a monitoring unit of the sensor device measures an impedance of the sound transducer for different excitation frequencies of excitation signals produced with a signal generator of the sensor device. The sensor device includes a first and a second signal path, which are each connected to the sound transducer and are connectable to the signal generator. To reset the sensor from normal operation to the monitoring mode, a first control unit of the sensor device is configured to decouple the signal generator from the first signal path and to connect it to the second signal path.

Apparatus and associated methods relate to a functional self-test, including (1) generation of an excitation signal, (2) applying the excitation signal to a unit under test (UUT), the excitation signal including a cyclical signal for a first interval and substantially zero signal for a second interval, (3) determining frequency content of a UUT response signal, and (4) generating a fail result in response to the frequency content below a predetermined threshold. In an illustrative example, the UUT may be a piezoelectric element (PE). The UUT response signal may be processed by a filter, for example. A portion of the filtered UUT response signal, responding to the second interval of the excitation signal, may be analyzed by a fast Fourier transform module (FFTm), for example. In various implementations, the functional self-test may advantageously determine the health of a piezoelectric gas sensing element, periodically, in a field-deployed implementation.

A method for estimating the sensitivity in an environment of a sound emission detector device capable of detecting a physical phenomenon producing a spatially limited sound emission, said detector device comprising a transducer array, said method comprising a) receiving at least one signal from at least one respective transducer of the transducer array, said array being place within said environment, b) estimating from the at least one signal received at step a) a detection threshold value of a spatially limited source sound emission parameter, c) estimating from the detection threshold value estimated at step b) a quantity representative of a magnitude of the physical phenomenon, d) displaying the quantity estimated at step c) so as to inform the user of the sensitivity of the detector.

A high-frequency dynamic pressure transducer calibration system and method is provided. The method directs a source onto a diaphragm of a dynamic pressure transducer. An oscillating voltage at a target frequency (or range of frequencies) is generated. The oscillating voltage is coupled to an electrical connector of the dynamic pressure transducer. A deflection pattern of the diaphragm is recorded. The dynamic pressure transducer is calibrated by correlating magnitude of the deflection pattern with the oscillating voltage as a function of the target frequency (or range of frequencies).

A method for estimating the sensitivity in an environment of a sound emission detector device capable of detecting a physical phenomenon producing a spatially limited sound emission, said detector device comprising a transducer array, said method comprising a) receiving at least one signal from at least one respective transducer of the transducer array, said array being place within said environment, b) estimating from the at least one signal received at step a) a detection threshold value of a spatially limited source sound emission parameter, c) estimating from the detection threshold value estimated at step b) a quantity representative of a magnitude of the physical phenomenon, d) displaying the quantity estimated at step c) so as to inform the user of the sensitivity of the detector.

An electronic device includes a processor, and a memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to learn a sound emitted by a legacy device and to issue an output when the electronic device subsequently hears the sound. For example, the electronic device can receive a training input and extract a compact representation of a sound in the training input, which the device stores. The device can receive an audio signal corresponding to an observed acoustic scene and extract a representation of the observed acoustic scene from the audio signal. The electronic device can determine whether the sound is present in the observed acoustic scene at least in part from a comparison of the representation of the observed acoustic scene with the representation of the sound. The electronic device emits a selected output responsive to determining that the sound is present in the acoustic scene.

Disclosed are a directional acoustic sensor, a method of adjusting directional characteristics using the directional acoustic sensor, and a method of attenuating an acoustic signal in a specific direction using the directional acoustic sensor. The directional acoustic sensor includes a plurality of resonance units arranged to have different directionalities and a signal processor configured to adjust directional characteristics by calculating at least one of a sum of and a difference between outputs of the resonance units. In this state, the signal processor attenuates an acoustic signal in a specific direction by using a plurality of directional characteristics obtained by calculating at least one of the sum of and the difference between the outputs of the resonance units at a certain ratio.

A method for estimating the sensitivity in an environment of a sound emission detector device capable of detecting a physical phenomenon producing a spatially limited sound emission, said detector device comprising a transducer array, said method comprising a) receiving at least one signal from at least one respective transducer of the transducer array, said array being place within said environment, b) estimating from the at least one signal received at step a) a detection threshold value of a spatially limited source sound emission parameter, c) estimating from the detection threshold value estimated at step b) a quantity representative of a magnitude of the physical phenomenon, d) displaying the quantity estimated at step c) so as to inform the user of the sensitivity of the detector.

An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe, an ultrasonic diagnostic device, and a manufacturing method of the ultrasonic probe, which are capable of reducing a product defect rate. An ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment includes a plurality of channels. Each of the plurality of channels includes a vibrator that outputs an ultrasonic wave, and a transmission circuit unit that changes an output in response to an input transmission signal and causes the vibrator to output the ultrasonic wave by driving the vibrator with the output. Here, the transmission circuit unit includes a stop signal holding circuit that holds a stop signal when the stop signal is input in advance, and selects whether to change the output in response to the transmission signal based on whether the stop signal is held.

A monitoring system for monitoring a machine, the monitoring system including at least one monitoring device and one or more processing systems. The monitoring device includes a housing, a coupling that physically attaches the housing to the machine, a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors including a vibration sensor that senses vibration transmitted from the machine to the vibration sensor at least in part via the coupling, a monitoring device processor that acquires sensors signals from the plurality of sensors and generates sensor data at least partially in accordance with signals from the sensors, and a transmitter that transmits the sensor data. The one or more processing systems receive the sensor data, analyse the sensor data to determine a machine status and either store an indication of the machine status as part of machine status data associated with respective machine or cause a status indication indicative of the machine status to be displayed.