A luminescent coating is disclosed that is used to dimensionally control the curing of a photocurable agent placed in close contact with the coating. The coating is applied at the interface of structures, such as brackets and prosthetics, or may be applied directly on a curable material for use in 3D printing, at the location where bonding material is needed to be cured. The luminescent coating irradiates from its structure the curing radiations necessary to photopolymerize the resin in response to a first radiation irradiated on its structure of a different wavelength.

A method of diagnosing optical inhomogeneity of a volume scattering object is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a substance coated with phosphorous materials, adapting the substrate to a surface of a volume scattering object to be diagnosed, and trans-illuminating the volume scattering object with radiation. A dental tool including a substrate is also provided. The substrate includes a transparent flexible film or metallic foil with an applied coating of upconversion phosphors, afterglow particles or both.

Apparatus and methods for the detection of proteins in biological fluids such as urine using a label-free assay is described. Specific proteins are detected by their binding to highly specific capture reagents such as SOMAmers that are attached to the surface of a substrate. Changes to these capture reagents and their local environment upon protein binding modify the behavior of color centers (e.g., fluorescence, ionization state, spin state, etc.) embedded in the substrate beneath the bound capture reagents. These changes can be read out, for example, optically or electrically, for an individual color center or as an average response of many color centers.

A three-dimensional printing system including a feed source of uncured filled resin material, a print head configured to apply discrete layers of a composition including upconversion phosphors, and a radiation source configured to irradiate layers of uncured filled resin material and deposited layers of the composition is provided. A method of three dimensionally printing a dental article is also provided.

Particulate sensing systems or processes identify particulates suspended in an air sample by irradiating the air sample with UV light and measuring light from individual particles in the air sample. Two photodiodes having different wavelength sensitivity may be used to measure the fluorescent light emitted from a single particle, and a type of the particle may be identified using outputs from photodiodes. Repeating the process for multiple particles may produces distributions that further distinguish or identify particulate types.

A three-dimensional (3D) object scanning method includes: controlling, when an invisible light source is off, a first camera device to capture a first image of the target object; and controlling, when the invisible light source is on, a second camera device to capture second images of the target object from a plurality of viewing angles. The target object is painted with invisible markers that are invisible to the first camera device when the invisible light source is off. The invisible markers are visible to the second camera device upon absorbing a light emitted by the invisible light source. The second images are used to determine 3D information of the target object.

A microparticle trapping device includes: a fluid channel configured to be injected with a fluid including a microparticle; first and second electrodes configured to generate an electric field in the fluid channel; and an electrical insulator formed with at least one opening between the first and second electrodes in the fluid channel. The electrical insulator is disposed between the first and second electrodes so that an inhomogeneous electric field is made through the at least one opening between the first and second electrodes in the fluid channel, and the still other aspect is configured to trap the microparticle through dielectrophoresis.