In one aspect, a system for monitoring crop fill-levels of transport receptacles includes a crop transport receptacle defining a storage volume configured to receive harvested crops, and a sensor assembly provided in association with the crop transport receptacle. The sensor assembly is configured to generate capacitance-related data associated with a fill-level of the harvested crops within the storage volume. In addition, the system includes a computing system communicatively coupled to the sensor assembly. The computing system is configured to receive crop data associated with a dielectric constant of the harvested crops within the storage volume. The computing system is further configured to determine the fill-level of the harvested crops within the storage volume based at least in part on the capacitance-related data and the crop data.

A rain detection device for sensing rain drops on a surface includes at least one sensor unit and at least one evaluation unit. The sensor unit includes at least one capacitive sensor element. The sensor element is configured such that a capacitance characteristic of the sensor element changes based on an object contacting the surface. The evaluation unit is configured to detect rain drops on the surface based on a differential signal of the sensor element. The evaluation unit is configured to detect a rain drop on the surface based on a symmetry characteristic of the differential signal with respect to a zero point.

Detection of moisture conditions in a conduit, particularly a gases supply system conduit for supplying respiratory or surgical gases, using an electrical property of the conduit.

A proximity sensor having improved environmental compensation performance and an environmental compensation method in the proximity sensor are disclosed. The environmental compensation method and the proximity sensor advantageously reduce processing time, algorithm operation time, and power consumption by previously setting sensing values before sensing of sensors unlike a typical method in which compensation is carried out by multiplying factors obtained through software. Further, the environmental compensation method and the proximity sensor have an advantage of accurate compensation not only for linearly varying environmental factors but also non-linearly varying environmental factors.

An illustrative humidity sensor may include a substrate having a source and a drain, wherein the drain is laterally spaced from the source. A gate stack is provided in the space between the source and the drain to form a transistor. The gate stack may include a gate insulator situated on the substrate to form a gate insulator/substrate interface. The gate stack may further include a barrier layer above the gate insulator. The barrier layer may be configured to act as a barrier to mobile charge, humidity and/or other contaminates, and may help prevent such contaminates from reaching the gate insulator/substrate interface. The gate stack may further include a humidity sensing layer above the barrier layer. The humidity sensing layer, when exposed to humidity, may modulate the conduction channel in the substrate under the gate insulator and between the source and the drain. In some cases, the humidity level may be determined by monitoring the current flowing between the source and drain.

An in situ ultra-low power contactless measurement apparatus and method suitable for micro-electronics in big data applications for continuously reporting a soil moisture profile at various zones.

A sensor semiconductor device comprises a transducer which comprises a capacitor with at least two electrodes. The transducer further comprises a polymer which is arranged between at least two electrodes of the capacitor, and a top surface of the transducer. The polymer is able to absorb water and the top surface is arranged such that it is exposed to the environment of the sensor semiconductor device. Furthermore, at least a part of the top surface is superhydrophobic and the sensor semiconductor device is capable of measuring the humidity of the environment of the sensor semiconductor device.

A method is useable for operating a sensor assembly for determining relative humidity in radiosondes. The sensor assembly includes a humidity sensor, a temperature sensor and a heating element. It is determined whether humidity is at or above a predetermined humidity limit selected as the limiting humidity with respect to saturation over ice. The humidity sensor is heated, at least temporarily, wherein in a temperature range below 0° C., the humidity sensor is at least temporarily heated by the heating element based on it having been determined that the humidity is at or above the predetermined humidity limit.

A determination device determining malfunction of a humidity sensor includes a malfunction determination portion. The humidity sensor includes a humidity detector, a temperature detector and a heater. The humidity detector has a humidity-sensitive film in an intake passage and detects a relative humidity of intake air taken into an internal combustion engine for a vehicle. The temperature detector detects a temperature of the humidity-sensitive film. The heater heats the humidity-sensitive film and the temperature of the humidity-sensitive film is increased by the heater. The malfunction determination portion estimates an estimated relative humidity at a subsequent temperature from an original relative humidity and the subsequent temperature, and compares the estimated relative humidity at the subsequent temperature and an actual subsequent relative humidity to determine malfunction of the humidity detector.

Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are presented for electronically emulating the impedance characteristics of materials, e.g., for standardizing and calibrating electromagnetic measuring devices for the measurement of physical properties of materials. The electronic impedance emulation apparatus according to some embodiments includes an electronic material emulation circuit in communication with the electromagnetic measuring device. The electronic material emulation circuit and the electromagnetic measuring device are controlled by a at least one computing device, which can control the frequency of signal(s) generated by the electromagnetic measuring device. The at least one computing device can instruct the electronic emulator to produce signals having complex impedance characteristics of the material under test at the test frequency. The emulation data can be stored and used for the calibration and/or standardization of the electromagnetic measuring device.