Achieving high spatial resolution in contact sensing for robotic manipulation often comes at the price of increased complexity in fabrication and integration. One traditional approach is to fabricate a large number of taxels, each delivering an individual, isolated response to a stimulus. The proposed sensors include a continuous volume of soft material, e.g., a transparent polymer, and light emitting diodes configured to emit light into the transparent volume that can be received by photodetectors. The location and depth of indentations can be measured between all pairs of light emitting diodes and photodetectors in the set, and this rich signal set can contain the information needed to pinpoint contact location with high accuracy using regression algorithms.

A structural color changeable material includes a strain body and surface plasmon generating particles. In the strain body, a strain is produced by an external pressure or an internal change. The surface plasmon generating particles generate surface plasmon and are contained in the strain body. The surface plasmon is generated by an incident light with a wavelength of 2400 nm or less. A mean particle size of the surface plasmon generating particles is equal to or less than the wavelength of the incident light. The surface plasmon generating particles are periodically arranged parallel to an in-plane direction of a reflection surface of the incident light.

A displacement sensor includes a first emission particles layer provided to be contactable with a measurement object, and in which first emission particles that emit light at a first wavelength by excitation energy are distributed over at least a one-dimensional extent, a second emission particles layer in which second emission particles that emit light at a second wavelength different from the first wavelength by the excitation energy are distributed over the above one-dimensional extent, and a spacer layer that separates the first emission particles layer and the second emission particles layer in a direction intersecting the above one-dimensional extent, and which includes an excitation energy absorbent that absorbs the excitation energy.

A medical device includes an elongated suture having a tension indicator carried by the elongated suture. The tension indicator signals over-tensioning of the elongated suture when a tensile load applied along an axial direction of the elongated suture exceeds a predetermined tensile load, thereby preventing over-tensioning of the suture and collapsing of the suture. Advantageously, the tension indicator serves as an integrated feedback device that provides instantaneous feedback when tensioning a suture, rather than having to use an external measuring device to determine the amount of tensile load applied to the suture.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a mold for continuous casting including a temperature detection unit which can detect the temperature of a copper plate of the mold with high precision, and can be easily inserted into and pulled out of the copper plate. The present invention includes: a main body; and a temperature detection unit which is inserted in an insertion hole in the main body, and detects temperature inside the mold. The temperature detection unit includes: an FBG sensor inserted in a protection tube which can be deformed in a radial direction; and a support member which supports the FBG sensor along the longitudinal direction. At a temperature detection point, the protection tube in which the FBG sensor is inserted is held between a stretched member in the support member and an inner surface of the insertion hole.

A pressure sensor and its use for visually determining whether a preselected pressure threshold has been achieved, for example during high pressure processing treatment of a foodstuff. The pressure sensor includes a contained color-changing system having a dye, a developer, and a solvent; upon achievement of the preselected pressure threshold, the dye and the developer interact, resulting in a visible color change. Further, the visible color change can be retained upon a decrease in pressure and upon an increase in temperature, thereby effectively recording the achievement of the preselected pressure threshold during the high pressure processing treatment.

A material for pressure measurement includes a first material having a color developer layer containing a microcapsule A encapsulating an electron-donating dye precursor disposed on a first base material and a second material having a developer layer containing an electron-accepting compound disposed on a second base material, the first base material contains an inorganic filler, and a proportion of the inorganic filler having a particle diameter of 0.1 m or more in all of the inorganic filler contained in the first base material is 5% by volume or less, and an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the developer layer satisfies 0.1 mRa1.1 m.

A material for pressure measurement including a first material having a color developer layer containing a microcapsule A encapsulating an electron-donating dye precursor disposed on a first base material and a second material having a developer layer containing a clay substance that is an electron-accepting compound disposed on a second base material, in which an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the developer layer satisfies 1.1 m<Ra3.0 m.

The tactile sensor of the present disclosure is an indirect optical sensor, comprising a frame, a sensing plate, a single beam LED light source, a miniature camera, and a grating plate in the sensing plate and the single light source illuminates the grating plate. Geometric interference fringes caused by the shadows of gratings and gratings, images taken by a miniature camera, through an innovative instantaneous steps phase shifting technique, which eliminates the need for any mechanical phase shifting device to detect the pressure and space. The position is measured and has fast and accurate tactile sensing. The advantage of this method is that directly shooting the moir image while calculating the spatial position, temperature, and pressure. Instantaneous steps phase shifting technique can solve the problems of traditional mechanical stepping, non-instant and complex operation problems.

Processing strain measurement signals from a first measured signal representing a first received backscattered optical signal for a first sensorthe first measured signal associated with a first phase signaland a second measured signal representing a second received backscattered optical signal for a second sensor. The second measured signal is associated with a second phase signal constituting a consolidation of the first phase signal and an additional phase signalwhere the additional phase signal is unrecoverable from the first measured signal. The first phase signal is determined from the first measured signal and processed. The second phase signal is determined from the second measured signal, where the first phase signal and additional phase signal are indistinguishable in the phase domain. The second phase signal is processed to obtain the additional phase signal and a strain measurement signal is constructed using the processed first phase signal and additional phase signal.