A standard-moisture generator includes a flow controller configured to control a flow of a gas, a dryer connected to the flow controller, configured to absorb water molecules in the gas and to generate a dry gas having a background moisture, a moisture cell connected to the dryer, configured to add an object moisture to the dry gas, and a delay member connected to the moisture cell, configured to pass the dry gas with a delay time depending on a concentration of the background moisture in the dry gas.

In order to permit a robust, energy-efficient and precise moisture sensor, the invention relates to a moisture sensor element (10) for a moisture sensor (12) for measuring a moisture content in a gas, comprising at least one vibrating element (14) and at least one material (16, 18) on the vibrating element (14), wherein the at least one material (16, 18) is designed in such a way that the mass thereof changes rapidly with moisture changing over a moisture value. The invention also relates to a moisture-measuring method for measuring a moisture in a gas, comprising: using a moisture sensor element (10), wherein the course of the measurement signal thereof has at least one non-linearity according to the moisture; and determining a reference value based on the at least one non-linearity.

A soil condition estimation apparatus 1 includes a selection unit 2 that, by using a propagation time that vibrations take to propagate through a soil, selects vibrations measured from the soil, according the depth of the soil; an extraction unit 3 that extracts a feature of the selected vibrations; and an estimation unit 4 that estimates conditions of the soil by referencing soil estimation information in which the feature and conditions of the soil are associated with each other, using the feature.

Among other things, a heating jacket configured for heating a mechanical testing instrument having a probe is disclosed herein. The heating jacket includes a heating element including a jacket wall, and the jacket wall extends around a probe recess, the jacket wall is configured to receive a probe of a mechanical testing instrument within the probe recess, and the heating element is mechanically isolated from the probe with a probe gap. Additionally, a system to correct for thermomechanical drift in a mechanical testing assembly is disclosed herein. The system isolates the mechanical testing instrument from thermomechanical drift of a system frame using a determined difference between, for instance, a probe displacement and a sample displacement.

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to measure a resonant sensor based on detection of group delay. An example apparatus includes a modulation manager configured to query the resonant sensor with a modulated signal including a frequency; and a resonance determiner configured to determine a resonance frequency of the resonant sensor based on a group delay associated with the resonant sensor and the frequency.

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to measure a resonant sensor based on detection of group delay. An example apparatus includes a modulation manager configured to query the resonant sensor with a modulated signal including a frequency; and a resonance determiner configured to determine a resonance frequency of the resonant sensor based on a group delay associated with the resonant sensor and the frequency.

An acoustic sensor for sensing environmental attributes within an enclosure is disclosed. The acoustic sensor may include a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) transducer configured to be installed outside the enclosure. The BAW transducer may generate an acoustic wave pulse and receive a reflected acoustic wave pulse. The acoustic sensor may further a waveguide assembly configured to be installed inside the enclosure. The waveguide assembly configured to receive the acoustic wave pulse from the BAW transducer. The acoustic sensor may further include a sensing device, wherein the sensing device may determine a change in one or more acoustic wave propagation parameters, based on the generated acoustic wave pulse and the reflected acoustic wave pulse. The sensing device may further determine one or more environmental attributes within the enclosure, based on the change in the one or more acoustic wave propagation parameters.

An ultrasonic concentration detector and liquid feature detector, the detector includes a body, a concentration detection tube, and an ultrasonic transducer sheet; the body includes a sealed chamber and an end cap part; an opening at a first end of the concentration detection tube is encapsulated by a reflection plate, and an opening at a second end of the concentration detection tube is encapsulated by the end cap part; the reflection plate faces to an outer surface of the end cap part; and a upper side and a lower side of the concentration detection tube are provided with an upper through hole and a lower through hole respectively. The ultrasonic transducer sheet is disposed in the sealed chamber at a second end of the concentration detection tube, facing to a reflection plate.

A non-destructive measurement apparatus and method for quantitatively measuring texture of a food snack is disclosed. The apparatus includes a laser generating tool, an ultrasound excitation device, an acoustic capturing device, an ultrasound capturing device and a data processing unit. The laser generating tool and the ultrasound excitation tool direct energy towards a food snack placed on a surface and produce an acoustic signal and an ultrasound signal. The data processing unit further comprises a digital signal processing module that processes the received acoustic signal and ultrasound signal. A statistical processing module further filters the acoustic signal from the data processing unit and generates a quantitative acoustic model for texture attributes such as hardness and fracturability. The quantitative model is correlated with a qualitative texture measurement from a descriptive expert panel. Texture of food snacks are quantitatively measured with the quantitative acoustic model.

A container for a pharmaceutical composition in which the container has a cover, and a cavity holding a sensor capable of detecting temperature and/or humidity. The sensor is capable of detecting when conditions of temperature and/or humidity fall outside of predetermined ranges. The sensor is further capable of sending a signal to a receiver outside of the container indicating the present or historical conditions of temperature and/or humidity.