Disclosed herein are systems and methods capable of identifying, tracking, and sorting particles or droplets flowing in a channel, for example, a microfluidic channel having a fluid medium. The channel and the fluid medium can have a similar refractive index such that they appear translucent or transparent when illuminated by electromagnetic radiation. The particles or droplets can have a refractive index substantially different from that of the channel and the medium, such that the particles or droplets interfere with the electromagnetic radiation. A sensor can be disposed adjacent to the channel to record the electromagnetic radiation. The sensor can be attached to a system for identifying, tracking, and sorting the droplets.

An optical method of characterizing an object comprises providing an object to be characterized, the object having at least one nanoscale feature; illuminating the object with coherent plane wave optical radiation having a wavelength larger than the nanoscale feature; capturing a diffraction intensity pattern of the radiation which is scattered by the object; supplying the diffraction intensity pattern to a neural network trained with a training set of diffraction intensity patterns corresponding to other objects with a same nanoscale feature as the object to be characterized, the neural network configured to recover information about the object from the diffraction intensity pattern; and making a characterization of the object based on the recovered information.

An optical detector device may receive a spectroscopic measurement from a multispectral sensor. The optical detector device may determine, based on the spectroscopic measurement, a particulate size of a particulate. The optical detector device may determine, based on the spectroscopic measurement, an identification of the particulate. The optical detector device may determine, based on the particulate size and the identification of the particulate, that an alert condition is satisfied. The optical detector device may trigger an alert based on determining that the alert condition is satisfied.

Provided are a particle size measurement method, a particle size measurement apparatus, and a particle size measurement program in which a needless measurement time period is omitted by setting an appropriate measurement time period in accordance with a particle size to be measured. The particle size measurement method includes: a test measurement step; an autocorrelation function calculation step; a setting step of setting a part of a plurality of measurement timings set in advance as measurement timings to be used for main measurement, based on a time period required until an autocorrelation function falls below a predetermined threshold value and a preliminary time period set and added to the time period; a main measurement step of measuring a main measurement intensity of scattered light during a main measurement time period; and a particle size calculation step of calculating a particle size of a sample.

A particle monitoring device includes a camera sensor for imaging particles, a set of light sources, and an optical component. A first light source provides light of a first color component. A second light source provides light of a second color component. The optical component receives light of the first color component in a first direction from the first light source, and redirects the light of the first color component in an output direction towards the particles to illuminate the particles using light of the first color component. The optical component receives light of a second color component in a second direction, different from the first direction, from the second light source, and redirects the light of the second color component in the output direction towards the particles to illuminate the particles using light of the second color component.

A nebulizer system capable of identifying when activation has occurred and aerosol is being produced. The nebulizer system monitors the inhalation and exhalation flow generated by the patient and communicates proper breathing technique for optimal drug delivery. The nebulizer system may monitor air supply to the nebulizer to ensure it is within the working range and is producing, or is capable of producing, acceptable particle size and drug output rate. When a patient, caregiver or other user deposits or inserts medication into the nebulizer, the nebulizer system is able to identify the medication and determine the appropriate delivery methods required to properly administer the medication as well as output this information into a treatment log to ensure the patient is taking the proper medications. The system is able to measure the concentration of the medication and volume of the medication placed within the medication receptacle, e.g., bowl.

A method of characterising particles in a sample, comprising: obtaining a scattering measurement comprising a time series of measurements of scattered light from a detector, the scattered light produced by the interaction of an illuminating light beam with the sample; producing a corrected scattering measurement, comprising compensating for scattering contributions from contaminants by reducing a scattering intensity in at least some time periods of the scattering measurement; determining a particle characteristic from the corrected scattering measurement.

A method of operating an optical icing conditions sensor includes transmitting a first light beam with a first transmitter and a second light beam with a second transmitter, thereby illuminating two illumination volumes. A first receiver receives the first light beam. A second receiver receives the second light beam. A controller measures the intensity of light received by the first and second receivers. The controller compares the intensities to threshold values and determines if either intensity is greater than the threshold values. The controller determines a cloud is present if either intensity is greater than the threshold values. The controller calculates a ratio of the intensities if a cloud is present. The controller determines, using the ratio, whether the cloud contains liquid water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of liquid water droplets and ice crystals.

A method of operating an optical icing conditions sensor includes transmitting, with a transmitter, a light beam and thereby illuminating an illumination volume. A receiver array receives light over a range of receiving angles. The receiver array is configured to receive light having the wavelength over a receiver array field of view which overlaps with the illumination volume. A controller measures an intensity of light received by the receiver array. The controller determines that a cloud is present if the intensity is greater than a threshold value. The controller calculates scattering profile data of the light received by the receiver array if a cloud is determined to be present, which includes an angle of a scattering intensity peak within the range of receiving angles and a breadth of the scattering intensity peak. The controller estimates a representative droplet size within the cloud using the scattering profile data.

A particles counting device according to an embodiment includes a body module, and an attachable/detachable chamber module inserted into the body module in an attachable/detachable manner, wherein the attachable/detachable chamber module is provided to include a memory that stores a reference voltage value for each channel, and extract the reference voltage value for each channel from the memory for counting the number of particles according to a light scattering signal to transmit the reference voltage value to the body module, and the body module is provided to receive the light scattering signal and the reference voltage value for each channel from the attachable/detachable chamber module, and count the number of particles for each channel on the basis of the received light scattering signal and the reference voltage value for each channel.