A gas detect ion system includes: a sending aerial vehicle in which a light-emitting unit is installed; a small unmanned aerial vehicle including a receiving aerial vehicle in which a light-receiving unit is installed; a gas computing and displaying unit that computes and displays gas information; and a photographing-route computing unit that computes a photographing route for the small unmanned aerial vehicle. The receiving aerial vehicle receives light from the light-emitting unit of the sending aerial vehicle by using the light-receiving unit thereof and sends the result as gas data to the gas computing and displaying unit. The gas computing and displaying unit computes the gas information from the gas data. The photographing-route computing unit computes the photographing route from the position of the small unmanned aerial vehicle and the amount of energy remaining in the small unmanned aerial vehicle.

Analyte survey systems (100) and related techniques are provided to improve the operation of handheld or unmanned mobile sensor or survey platforms. An analyte survey system includes a logic device (112) configured to communicate with a communication module (164) and a sensor assembly (166) of a modular sensor core (160), where the communication module is configured to establish a wireless communication link with a base station (130) associated with the modular sensor core and/or a mobile sensor platform (110) and the sensor assembly is configured to provide analyte sensor data as the modular sensor core is maneuvered within a survey area.

Technology is provided for identifying concrete and/or asphalt (or other materials) in a multispectral satellite image that has multiple bands including a first set of bands from a first sensor and a second set of bands from a second sensor. The second sensor is at a different position on a focal plane as compared to the first sensor so that a single location depicted in the multispectral image will have been sensed at different times by the first sensor and the second sensor. The system identifies moving vehicles in the multispectral image and subsequently identifies sample pixels in the multispectral image that are near the moving vehicles. These pixels are high confidence samples of roads made of concrete and/or asphalt. Additional pixels are identified in the multispectral image having spectral characteristics that are within a threshold of spectral characteristics of the sample pixels. These additional pixels also depict concrete and/or asphalt.

A method for determining and transmitting slant visibility range information for a runway at a predetermined decision altitude, including a step of acquiring, by a first aircraft, an image of a surrounding scene located outside and ahead of the aircraft, a step of analyzing the image to detect visual runway references in the image and measure distance between the aircraft and each detected runway reference, a step of transmitting slant visibility range information to the ground station, implemented by the first aircraft, the information including a distance between a visual runway reference and the aircraft measured in the analysis step if at least one runway reference has been detected, or if not information according to which no visual runway reference was able to be detected, and a step of transmitting, by the ground station, slant visibility range information associated with the runway to at least one second aircraft in flight.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for open path laser spectroscopy with mobile platforms. An example system may include a first mobile platform and a second mobile platform, each of which supports a payload. A light beam directed from one payload to another may define a measurement path, which may be at a particular height above the ground. The payloads may determine a gas concentration along the measurement path. Wind information at the measurement height may be used to determine a gas flux. One or both of the mobile platforms may then move to a new location, and take a measurement along a new measurement path. By combining the measurement paths, gas flux through a flux surface may be determined.

An optical system measures one or more physiological parameters with a wearable device that includes a light emitting diode (LED) source including a driver and a plurality of semiconductor sources that generate an output optical light. One or more lenses deliver a lens output light to tissue of a user. A detection system receives at least a portion of the lens output light reflected from the tissue and generates an output signal having a signal-to-noise ratio. The detection system comprises a plurality of spatially separated detectors and an analog to digital converter. The detection system increases the signal-to-noised ratio by comparing a first signal with the LEDs off to a second signal with the LEDs on. An imaging system including a Bragg reflector is pulsed and has a near infrared wavelength. A beam splitter splits the light into a sample arm and a reference arm to measure time-of-flight.

A method includes transmitting first optical energy towards a space being scanned. The method also includes detecting one or more instances of a first material in the space using first return optical energy, where the first return optical energy is based on the transmitted first optical energy. The method further includes, for each of the one or more instances of the first material, transmitting second optical energy towards a portion of the space in which the instance of the first material was detected. The method also includes detecting one or more instances of a second material in the space using second return optical energy, where the second return optical energy is based on the transmitted second optical energy. In addition, the method includes identifying a presence of at least one type of device in the space based on instances of the first and second materials detected in the space.

Methods, systems and devices for use in aerial or satellite-based applications to detect elements or magnitudes of interest, or monitor their changes, in a target location are disclosed. A transducing system includes a detector device to sense, transduce or detect optical properties of at least one transducing agent linked to the elements or magnitudes of interest. Based on the optical property of the transducing agent, the system generates information of the element or magnitude of interest. The methods and systems provide tools for detecting magnitudes from remote locations which are usually difficult or costly to measure on-site, thereby providing an efficient detection system for aerial detection systems.

Embodiments include a method for retrieving atmospheric aerosol based on statistical segmentation. Firstly a multi-band remote sensing image including an apparent reflectance and an aerosol optical thickness look-up table corresponding to a retrieval band is obtained, then pixels are partitioned and screened according to apparent reflectance segments of a mid-infrared 2.1 micrometer band. After that the retained pixel sets are further partitioned and screened according to the apparent reflectance segments of the mid-infrared 1.6 micrometer band. Finally the obtained pixel sets are partitioned into two categories according to the pixel number, one category including pixels having more pixels, the other including those with less pixels. The category with more pixels is taken as the reference part for retrieval.

A laser gas detection system includes a laser gas detector and a near-eye display device. The laser gas detection system provided in the present disclosure incorporates modern display technologies and modern communication facilities to present detection results to a user of the laser gas detection system in various intuitive and highly readable forms. The laser gas detection system is further capable of projecting the detection results to a field of view of the user through the near-eye display device.