A system and methods of tracking and identifying airborne particles using sensing devices that may include a fan and a collection plate. The fan forces air through the sensing device and airborne particles onto the collection plate. An imaging device captures images of the particles on the collection plate for analysis and identification. An image processing device determines pre-identified particles in the images. The images of other particles are processed and identified by a neural network processing device. Recommendations based on particle counts are provided to a user device. The user device may automatically control one or more devices in response to the recommendations.

The present application relates to a target task intention identifying method and device based on a unit distribution thermal grid. The method comprises: converting the task space into latitude and longitude grids according to the latitudes and longitudes; according to locations of flying targets and task radiuses, constructing an aerial unit distribution thermal grid in the task space; according to the thermal value of the grid and the associated flying targets, determining a task suspected formation in the task space; judging whether or not each task suspected formation is a target formation according to the principle of time and space consistency; and determining task intention of the target formation according to the platform type of the flying targets in the obtained target formation and the task type of the task target in the task area. The method can be adopted to directly identify the formation of the flying targets, the task area and the task intention according to real-time obtained information such as the platform type of the flying targets, the flying trajectory, the location of the task target, the type of the task target, and the like, so that the problem that a conventional way needs support of prior knowledge and algorithm training is solved.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) solar irradiation assessment system may automate several design parameters of solar panel design, cost and payoff estimations, and installation. The system determines the irradiance at various locations on a roof during various time periods. The system accounts for the effects of various existing, potential, or future obstacles proximate the structure. In some embodiments, a visual model of the roof may be shown with a heatmap of irradiance values and/or graphical placement of solar panels. In other embodiments, the data may be analyzed and reported without visual presentation.

An image processing device includes a light source, a reader, and circuitry. The light source is configured to irradiate an object at least with invisible light. The reader is configured to read a first image from the object irradiated with the invisible light. The circuitry is configured to generate a second image from the first image read by the reader. The circuitry is configured to recognize first information in the second image.

A system for inspecting an aircraft includes a drone, a base station, and a controller. The drone includes one or more cameras. The base station has a storage compartment configured to store the autonomous drone therein. The controller has a processor and a memory. The memory has instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processor, cause the base station to drive to a first predetermined location relative to the aircraft, and cause the drone to fly from the storage compartment of the base station to a first predetermined position relative to the aircraft so that the drone can record image data of at least portions of the aircraft with the one or more cameras.

A plastic item, such as a beverage bottle, conveys two distinct digital watermarks, encoded using two distinct signaling protocols. A first, printed label watermark conveys a retailing payload, including a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) used by a point-of-sale scanner in a retail store to identify and price the item when presented for checkout. A second, plastic texture watermark conveys a recycling payload, including data identifying the composition of the plastic. The use of two different signaling protocols assures that a point-of-sale scanner will not spend its limited time and computational resources working to decode the recycling watermark, which lacks the data needed for retail checkout. In some embodiments, a recycling apparatus makes advantageous use of both types of watermarks to identify the plastic composition of the item (e.g., relating GTIN to plastic type using an associated database), thereby increasing the fraction of items that are correctly identified for sorting and recycling. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

Embodiments of work stations for use in a medical dose preparation management system are disclosed. A work station may include a camera stand. The camera stand may include a housing enclosing a camera and one or more light sources therein. As such, the camera and light sources may be directed at a medical dose preparation staging region to capture medical dose preparation images of the medical dose preparation staging region. The camera stand may include an adjustable support positionable in a plurality of positions to dispose the camera and light source relative to the medical dose preparation staging region. The work stations may facilitate improved image quality and record work flows carried out at the work station for preparation verification.

Systems and methods for uniquely identifying fluid-phase products by endowing them with fingerprints composed of dispersed colloidal particles, and by reading out those fingerprints on demand using Total Holographic Characterization. A library of chemically inert colloidal particles is developed that can be dispersed into soft materials, the stoichiometry of the mixture encoding user-specified information, including information about the host material. Encoded information then can be recovered by high-speed analysis of holographic microscopy images of the dispersed particles. Specifically, holograms of individual colloidal spheres are analyzed with predictions of the theory of light scattering to measure each sphere's radius and refractive index, thereby building up the distribution of particle properties one particle at a time. A complete analysis of a colloidal fingerprint requires several thousand single-particle holograms and can be completed in ten minutes.

The present technology relates to a monitoring system, a monitoring sensor apparatus, a monitoring method and a program that make it possible to detect a failure of IR illumination on the basis of picked up images. The monitoring sensor apparatus according to an aspect of the present technology includes an infrared light irradiation section irradiating infrared light to a range within which a monitoring target is capable of existing, an imaging section having sensitivity to the infrared light and imaging the range within which the monitoring target is capable of existing, a detection section detecting a state of the monitoring target based on the picked up image, a first transmission controlling section controlling presence or absence of execution of first transmission operation for transmitting a result of the detection to a different apparatus, a second transmission controlling section controlling presence or absence of execution of second transmission operation for transmitting the picked up image to the different apparatus, and a failure detection section detecting a failure of the infrared light irradiation section based on a comparison result when a plurality of picked up images are compared in a state in which execution of the second transmission operation is stopped by the second transmission controlling section. The present technology can be applied to a monitoring system installed in elderly care facilities or like facilities.

A system (100) for remote detection of one or more dimensions of a metallic and/or dielectric object (116), comprising: at least one sensor component configured to identify one or more candidate objects (111), a transmission apparatus, including a transmission element (106), configured to direct microwave and/or mm wave radiation, a detection apparatus (108,109) configured to receive radiation from an entity resulting from the transmitted radiation and to generate one or more detection signals in the frequency domain, and a controller (104), the controller being operable to: generate location data for the one or more candidate objects (111) based on data received from the sensor component; cause the transmission apparatus to direct radiation towards a candidate object, cause the transmitted radiation to be continuously swept over a predetermined range of frequencies, perform a transform operation on the detection signals to generate one or more transformed signals, and determine, from one or more features of the transformed signal, one or more characteristics of the candidate object upon which the transmitted radiation is incident.