A method of assessment of renal function by monitoring a time-varying fluorescence signal emitted from a fluorescent agent from within a diffuse reflecting medium with time-varying optical properties is provided that includes using a renal monitoring system comprising at least one light source, at least one light detector, at least one optical filter, and at least one controller to provide a measurement data set comprising a plurality of measurement entries, each measurement data entry comprising at least two measurements obtained at one data acquisition time from a patient before and after administration of the fluorescent agent.

An on-chip interferometer and a spectrometer including the interferometer are provided. An on-chip interferometer includes a waveguide for propagation of an optical signal including an input waveguide; at least two interferometer arms having one or more slot waveguides; and an output waveguide; wherein the input waveguide is split into the at least two interferometer arms which are recombined into the output waveguide; and a control mechanism configured for controlling a relative time delay between optical signals propagating in the two interferometer arms by modifying one or more slot widths of one or more of the slot waveguides; and wherein the relative time delay is at least 1, 2, 5, or at least 10 fs or at least one optical period of the longest optical wavelength of the optical signal.

Disclosed are a scanner system and a method for recording surface geometry and surface color of an object where both surface geometry information and surface color information for a block of the image sensor pixels at least partly from one 2D image recorded by the color image sensor. A particular application is within dentistry, particularly for intraoral scanning.

Devices and methods to perform Raman spectroscopy with a structured excitation profile to obtain a Raman excitation map. A device includes a broadband light source to emit a broadband light beam and excitation optics to disperse the broadband light beam to strike a sample as incident light according to a structured excitation profile. The device further includes analysis optics to collect scattered light scattered by the incident light striking the sample, block Rayleigh scatter from the collected scattered light in a manner complementary to the structured excitation profile, and direct Raman scatter from the collected scattered light to a sensor to generate a signal to form a Raman excitation map.

Disclosed are a dual-optical-path spectrophotometer and a color measurement method thereof. The spectrophotometer includes an integrating sphere, a light source, and a sensor. A second shutter, a semi-reflecting and semi-transmitting device and lenses are arranged between the detection hole and the sensor, and a light guide device and a first shutter are arranged between a light guide hole formed in the integrating sphere and the semi-reflecting and semi-transmitting device. The color measurement method includes the following steps. A first shutter is closed, a second shutter is opened, light, reflected by the measuring opening, enters a sensor and the sensor measures a spectral reflected signal of the object surface. The first shutter is opened, the second shutter is closed, reflected light enters the sensor, and the sensor measures a spectral reflected signal of a light source. A final sampled signal is calculated.

A method and system are disclosed for providing consistent images of leaves of plants, including articulating a lower case of a housing with respect to an upper case via an imaging chamber articulation mechanism from i) a closed state to ii) an open state, the articulable space forms an imaging chamber which is dark when the imaging chamber articulation mechanism is in the closed state, placing the leaf within the imaging chamber, articulating the imaging chamber articulation mechanism to the closed state, activating one or more light sources, actuating a linear actuator to thereby linearly move a camera from i) an initial position to ii) an end position, obtaining images from the camera, re-actuating the linear actuator to thereby linearly move the camera from the end position to the initial position, re-articulating the lower case to the open state, and removing the leaf.

An optical array waveguide grating-type multiplexer and demultiplexer according to an embodiment of the present invention comprise: a first substrate, a plurality of first waveguides disposed on the first substrate to be superposed in the vertical direction, which is the thickness direction of the first substrate; a 1-1st cladding layer disposed between the first substrate and a 1-1st waveguide, which is nearest to the first substrate among the plurality of first waveguides; a 1-2nd cladding layer disposed between the plurality of first waveguides; and a 1-3rd cladding layer disposed on a 1-2nd waveguide, which is furthest from the first substrate among the plurality of first waveguides.

A mirror unit 2 includes a mirror device 20 including a base 21 and a movable mirror 22, an optical function member 13, and a fixed mirror 16 that is disposed on a side opposite to the mirror device 20 with respect to the optical function member 13. The mirror device 20 is provided with a light passage portion 24 that constitutes a first portion of an optical path between the beam splitter unit 3 and the fixed mirror 16. The optical function member 13 is provided with a light transmitting portion 14 that constitutes a second portion of the optical path between the beam splitter unit 3 and the fixed mirror 16. A second surface 21b of the base 21 and a third surface 13a of the optical function member 13 are joined to each other.

A system for performing advanced spectrometry using a camera of a personal electronic device. Light from a sample is captured via a light dispersion device that diffracts the light in accordance with the wavelength of that light. A sample spectrum image is captured using a camera of a personal electronic device. Spectral data is extracted from the sample spectrum image and the spectral data is wavelength calibrated by mapping each pixel position in the sample spectrum image to a wavelength. Features are extracted from the wavelength calibrated spectral data and used by classification module, trained on a dataset of features extracted from spectral data of known samples, to classify the sample. In some embodiments, a calibration spectrum image captured from a calibration light source having a known spectrum (e.g., in the same image frame using a bifurcated fiber optic cable) is used to wavelength calibrate the spectral data.

One embodiment of a method for restricting laser beams entering an aperture to a chosen dyad and measuring their separation. The method works with frequency-modulated coherent light, and one embodiment uses a moveable, variable-aperture apparatus (FIG. 1) in conjunction with a converging lens (6) and a detector (7). Key elements of other embodiments are described.