An apparatus may include a platen, an electromagnetic interference (EMI)-reducing system including a first EMI-reducing layer, a light source system and a receiver system. The light source system may include a light-emitting component, light source system circuitry and a light guide system and may be configured to emit light through the first EMI-reducing layer to a first platen area via a light pipe between the first EMI-reducing layer and the platen. The light guide system may include a light-directing element for directing light from the first EMI-reducing layer to the light pipe. The receiver system may be configured to detect acoustic waves corresponding to a photoacoustic response of a target object in contact with the first platen area to light emitted by the light source system. The first EMI-reducing layer may reduce a level of EMI emitted by the light source system circuitry that is received by receiver system circuitry.

A sensor and analyzer for measuring an analyte in a liquid sample are disclosed. The sensor includes a substrate with a reservoir disposed therein. The reservoir may include a top surface and a bottom surface, at least one transparent portion forming at least a part of the bottom surface of the reservoir, and a reflector disposed on the upper surface of the reservoir at a location opposite the at least one transparent portion. The analyzer may include a support surface, an aperture extending through the support surface, a light source disposed below the support surface and oriented so that at least a portion of the light emitted from the light source passes through the aperture, and a detector configured to measure an intensity of light received at the detector.

The invention relates to a unit and method for detection of presence of oil on the water surface or in the water column. Unit comprises a sensor, whereby the sensor is connected to electronic compartment followed by microprocessor controller with embedded software for carrying out necessary analyses of reflected signals received by the sensor. The microprocessor controller is connected to communication means for transmitting an alarm signal through external communication line in case of oil pollution. All elements mentioned above are supplied by external power supply and are accommodated into a waterproof housing. The sensor comprises the probe light source formed by a pulsed UV LED, collimating optics and narrow band optical filter, at least one dichroic mirror, a projection-receiving lens, at least one optical filter, at least one photodetector and a reference photodetector.

An optical sensor system may include a light source. The optical sensor system may include a concentrator component proximate to the light source and configured to concentrate light from the light source with respect to a measurement target. The optical sensor system may include a collection component that includes an array of at least two components configured to receive light reflected or transmitted from the measurement target. The optical sensor system may include may a sensor. The optical sensor system may include a filter provided between the collection component and the sensor.

A device to measure the amount of light able to transmit through a liquid. The device uses a light detector and multiple light emitting diodes (LED's) along with an optical unit such that the light detector, LED's, and an optical unit define a path of light emitted by each individual LED or subgroup of LED's and detected by the detector. The device uses a structure designed to surround the LED's and light detector such that the structure allows the device to be immersed in the liquid and such that the structure is shaped to allow a volume of liquid to be between the LED's and detector, intersecting the light path.

An inspection system of an embodiment includes: a planar illumination unit that temporally varies an intensity of light in a periodic manner by spatially moving a stripe pattern of the intensity of light; a time-correlation image generator that generates a time-correlation image with a time-correlation camera or an image capturing system that performs an operation equivalent to that of the time-correlation camera; and a calculation processor that calculates a characteristic from the time-correlation image, the characteristic corresponding to a distribution of normal vectors to an inspection target surface and serving to detect an abnormality based on at least either a difference from a surrounding area or a difference from a reference surface.

A method for rapid determination of a concentration of free sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2) in a liquid is disclosed. The method involves receiving a liquid sample in an enclosed volume and, while a temperature of the liquid sample remains below 35 C., conditioning the liquid sample to cause gasified SO.sub.2 to accumulate in a headspace of the enclosed volume above a surface of the liquid sample. The method further involves directing UV light having a wavelength between 250 nm and 320 nm through a gaseous sample taken from the headspace, and measuring an attenuation of the UV light due to absorption within the gaseous sample The concentration of gaseous SO.sub.2 within the gaseous sample is determined from the measured attenuation.

A method and apparatus for determining a decay time of a luminescence of a sample, comprising the following steps: excitation of a light source by means of an excitation current from a current source; irradiating the sample with a light of a wavelength suitable for exciting luminescence in the sample, periodically varying the irradiation intensity; measuring a light emitted from the sample, generating a first electrical signal in response to the light emitted from the sample, and amplifying the first electrical signal; detecting a first phase difference between the excitation current and the amplified first electrical signal; generating a second electrical signal, wherein the second electrical signal is generated directly from the excitation current of the current source and is subsequently amplified; detecting a second phase difference between the excitation current and the amplified second electrical signal; and determination of the decay time of the sample's luminescence based on a phase difference between the excitation current and the sample's light emission.

The invention relates to a device (100) and a corresponding method for thermoacoustic sensing, in particular thermoacoustic imaging, the device (100) comprising: a) an irradiation unit (10) configured to generate electromagnetic and/or particle energy exhibiting a first modulation, the first modulation comprising at least one frequency and to continuously emit the energy towards a target (1), whereby acoustic waves are continuously generated in the target, the acoustic waves exhibiting a second modulation, the second modulation comprising the at least one frequency and/or a harmonic frequency of the at least one frequency; b) a detection unit (20) configured to simultaneously detect the acoustic waves exhibiting the second modulation while the energy exhibiting the first modulation is being continuously emitted towards the target (1); and c) a processing unit (30) configured to determine at least one thermoacoustic value of an amplitude and/or a phase of the second modulation of the acoustic waves at the at least one frequency and/or at a harmonic frequency of the at least one frequency. The invention allows for fast and economic thermoacoustic sensing, in particular imaging of a region of interest of an object.

Disclosed is a method for measuring the absorbance of light of a substance in a solution in a measuring cell, said method comprising the steps of: transmitting a first light beam from a light source towards a beam splitter; dividing the first light beam into a signal light ray and a reference light ray by the beam splitter; modulating the signal light ray; modulating the reference light ray; providing the measuring cell such that the signal light ray passes through the measuring cell; detecting a signal in a detector, which signal is the combined signal intensity of the signal light ray and the reference light ray detected by the detector; performing synchronous detection of the detected signal in order to reconstruct the intensities of the signal light ray and the reference light ray from the combined signal detected by the detector, said synchronous detection being based on the modulation performed to the signal light ray and the reference light ray. Disclosed also is a measuring device for carrying out said method.