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Sensors, Volume 19, Issue 2 (January-2 2019) – 220 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Thrusters play an important role in the motion control of amphibious spherical robots. A thrust model for a new water-jet thruster based on hydrodynamic analyses is proposed as a way of achieving accurate motion control. The hydrodynamic characteristics of the new thruster were numerically analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial software CFX. The moving reference frame (MRF) technique was utilized to simulate propeller rotation. The basic framework of the thrust model was built according to hydromechanics theory. Parameters in the basic framework were identified through the results of the hydrodynamic simulation. Compared with other related experimental results, the maximum error of the simulation results was only 7%, which indicates that the thrust model is precise enough to be utilized in the motion control of amphibious spherical robots. View this paper.
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16 pages, 2995 KiB  
Article
A 4K-Input High-Speed Winner-Take-All (WTA) Circuit with Single-Winner Selection for Change-Driven Vision Sensors
by Fernando Pardo, Càndid Reig, José A. Boluda and Francisco Vegara
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 437; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020437 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3770
Abstract
Winner-Take-All (WTA) circuits play an important role in applications where a single element must be selected according to its relevance. They have been successfully applied in neural networks and vision sensors. These applications usually require a large number of inputs for the WTA [...] Read more.
Winner-Take-All (WTA) circuits play an important role in applications where a single element must be selected according to its relevance. They have been successfully applied in neural networks and vision sensors. These applications usually require a large number of inputs for the WTA circuit, especially for vision applications where thousands to millions of pixels may compete to be selected. WTA circuits usually exhibit poor response-time scaling with the number of competitors, and most of the current WTA implementations are designed to work with less than 100 inputs. Another problem related to the large number of inputs is the difficulty to select just one winner, since many competitors may have differences below the WTA resolution. In this paper, a WTA circuit is presented that handles more than four thousand inputs, to our best knowledge the hitherto largest WTA, with response times below the microsecond, and with a guaranty of just a single winner selection. This performance is obtained by the combination of a standard analog WTA circuit and a fast digital single-winner selector with almost no size penalty. This WTA circuit has been successfully employed in the fabrication of a Selective Change-Driven Vision Sensor based on 180 nm CMOS technology. Both simulated and experimental results are presented in the paper, showing that a single pixel event can be selected in just 560 ns, and a multipixel pixel event can be processed in 100 μs. Similar results with a conventional approach would require a camera working at more than 1 Mfps for the single-pixel event detection, and 10 kfps for the whole multipixel event to be processed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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15 pages, 16126 KiB  
Article
Experimental-Numerical Design and Evaluation of a Vibration Bioreactor Using Piezoelectric Patches
by David Valentín, Charline Roehr, Alexandre Presas, Christian Heiss, Eduard Egusquiza and Wolfram A. Bosbach
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 436; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020436 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4623
Abstract
In this present study, we propose a method for exposing biological cells to mechanical vibration. The motive for our research was to design a bioreactor prototype in which in-depth in vitro studies about the influence of vibration on cells and their metabolism can [...] Read more.
In this present study, we propose a method for exposing biological cells to mechanical vibration. The motive for our research was to design a bioreactor prototype in which in-depth in vitro studies about the influence of vibration on cells and their metabolism can be performed. The therapy of cancer or antibacterial measures are applications of interest. In addition, questions about the reaction of neurons to vibration are still largely unanswered. In our methodology, we used a piezoelectric patch (PZTp) for inducing mechanical vibration to the structure. To control the vibration amplitude, the structure could be excited at different frequency ranges, including resonance and non-resonance conditions. Experimental results show the vibration amplitudes expected for every frequency range tested, as well as the vibration pattern of those excitations. These are essential parameters to quantify the effect of vibration on cell behavior. Furthermore, a numerical model was validated with the experimental results presenting accurate results for the prediction of those parameters. With the calibrated numerical model, we will study in greater depth the effects of different vibration patterns for the abovementioned cell types. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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12 pages, 5118 KiB  
Article
In-Fiber Collimator-Based Fabry-Perot Interferometer with Enhanced Vibration Sensitivity
by Bin Du, Xizhen Xu, Jun He, Kuikui Guo, Wei Huang, Fengchan Zhang, Min Zhang and Yiping Wang
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 435; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020435 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6000
Abstract
A simple vibration sensor is proposed and demonstrated based on an optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with an in-fiber collimator. The device was fabricated by splicing a quarter-pitch graded index fiber (GIF) with a section of a hollow-core fiber (HCF) interposed between single [...] Read more.
A simple vibration sensor is proposed and demonstrated based on an optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with an in-fiber collimator. The device was fabricated by splicing a quarter-pitch graded index fiber (GIF) with a section of a hollow-core fiber (HCF) interposed between single mode fibers (SMFs). The static displacement sensitivity of the FPI with an in-fiber collimator was 5.17 × 10−4 μm−1, whereas the maximum static displacement sensitivity of the device without collimator was 1.73 × 10−4 μm−1. Moreover, the vibration sensitivity of the FPI with the collimator was 60.22 mV/g at 100 Hz, which was significantly higher than the sensitivity of the FPI without collimator (11.09 mV/g at 100 Hz). The proposed FPI with an in-fiber collimator also exhibited a vibration sensitivity nearly one order of magnitude higher than the device without the collimator at frequencies ranging from 40 to 200 Hz. This low-cost FPI sensor is highly-sensitive, robust and easy to fabricate. It could potentially be used for vibration monitoring in remote and harsh environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cantilever Sensor)
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20 pages, 1271 KiB  
Article
Motion Plan of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships by Dynamic Programming for Collision Avoidance and Speed Optimization
by Xiongfei Geng, Yongcai Wang, Ping Wang and Baochen Zhang
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 434; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020434 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 5210
Abstract
Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) with advanced guidance, navigation, and control capabilities have attracted great attention in recent years. Sailing safely and efficiently are critical requirements for autonomous control of MASS. The MASS utilizes the information collected by the radar, camera, and Autonomous [...] Read more.
Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) with advanced guidance, navigation, and control capabilities have attracted great attention in recent years. Sailing safely and efficiently are critical requirements for autonomous control of MASS. The MASS utilizes the information collected by the radar, camera, and Autonomous Identification System (AIS) with which it is equipped. This paper investigates the problem of optimal motion planning for MASS, so it can accomplish its sailing task early and safely when it sails together with other conventional ships. We develop velocity obstacle models for both dynamic and static obstacles to represent the potential conflict-free region with other objects. A greedy interval-based motion-planning algorithm is proposed based on the Velocity Obstacle (VO) model, and we show that the greedy approach may fail to avoid collisions in the successive intervals. A way-blocking metric is proposed to evaluate the risk of collision to improve the greedy algorithm. Then, by assuming constant velocities of the surrounding ships, a novel Dynamic Programming (DP) method is proposed to generate the optimal multiple interval motion plan for MASS. These proposed algorithms are verified by extensive simulations, which show that the DP algorithm provides the lowest collision rate overall and better sailing efficiency than the greedy approaches. Full article
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12 pages, 6624 KiB  
Article
Experimental Analysis of Bragg Reflection Peak Splitting in Gratings Fabricated Using a Multiple Order Phase Mask
by Gabriela Statkiewicz-Barabach, Karol Tarnowski, Dominik Kowal and Pawel Mergo
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 433; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020433 - 21 Jan 2019
Viewed by 3610
Abstract
We performed an experimental analysis of the effect of phase mask alignment on the Bragg grating reflection spectra around the wavelength of λB = 1560 nm fabricated in polymer optical fiber by using a multiple order phase mask. We monitored the evolution [...] Read more.
We performed an experimental analysis of the effect of phase mask alignment on the Bragg grating reflection spectra around the wavelength of λB = 1560 nm fabricated in polymer optical fiber by using a multiple order phase mask. We monitored the evolution of the reflection spectra for different values of the angle ϕ by describing the tilt between the phase mask and the fiber. We observed that the peak at λB is split into five separate peaks for the nonzero tilt and that separation of the peaks increases linearly with ϕ. Through comparison with theoretical data we were able to identify the five peaks as products of different grating periodicities, which are associated with the interference of different pairs of diffraction orders on the phase mask. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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13 pages, 1174 KiB  
Article
Wearable Sensor-Based Exercise Biofeedback for Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Mixed Methods User Evaluation of a Prototype System
by Rob Argent, Patrick Slevin, Antonio Bevilacqua, Maurice Neligan, Ailish Daly and Brian Caulfield
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 432; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020432 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 7697
Abstract
The majority of wearable sensor-based biofeedback systems used in exercise rehabilitation lack end-user evaluation as part of the development process. This study sought to evaluate an exemplar sensor-based biofeedback system, investigating the feasibility, usability, perceived impact and user experience of using the platform. [...] Read more.
The majority of wearable sensor-based biofeedback systems used in exercise rehabilitation lack end-user evaluation as part of the development process. This study sought to evaluate an exemplar sensor-based biofeedback system, investigating the feasibility, usability, perceived impact and user experience of using the platform. Fifteen patients participated in the study having recently undergone knee replacement surgery. Participants were provided with the system for two weeks at home, completing a semi-structured interview alongside the System Usability Scale (SUS) and user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS). The analysis from the SUS (mean = 90.8 [SD = 7.8]) suggests a high degree of usability, supported by qualitative findings. The mean adherence rate was 79% with participants reporting a largely positive user experience, suggesting it offers additional support with the rehabilitation regime. Overall quality from the mean uMARS score was 4.1 out of 5 (SD = 0.39), however a number of bugs and inaccuracies were highlighted along with suggestions for additional features to enhance engagement. This study has shown that patients perceive value in the use of wearable sensor-based biofeedback systems and has highlighted the benefit of user-evaluation during the design process, illustrated the need for real-world accuracy validation, and supports the ongoing development of such systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Data Analytics and Applications of the Wearable Sensors in Healthcare)
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21 pages, 3273 KiB  
Article
A Smart Recommender Based on Hybrid Learning Methods for Personal Well-Being Services
by Rayan M. Nouh, Hyun-Ho Lee, Won-Jin Lee and Jae-Dong Lee
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 431; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020431 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 8227
Abstract
The main focus of the paper is to propose a smart recommender system based on the methods of hybrid learning for personal well-being services, called a smart recommender system of hybrid learning (SRHL). The essential health factor is considered to be personal lifestyle, [...] Read more.
The main focus of the paper is to propose a smart recommender system based on the methods of hybrid learning for personal well-being services, called a smart recommender system of hybrid learning (SRHL). The essential health factor is considered to be personal lifestyle, with the help of a critical examination of various disciplines. Integrating the recommender system effectively contributes to the prevention of disease, and it also leads to a reduction in treatment cost, which contributes to an improvement in the quality of life. At the same time, there exist various challenges within the recommender system, mainly cold start and scalability. To effectively address the inefficiencies, we propose combined hybrid methods in regard to machine learning. The primary aim of this learning method is to integrate the most effective and efficient learning algorithms to examine how combined hybrid filtering can help to improve the cold star problem efficiently in the provision of personalized well-being in regard to health food service. These methods include: (1) switching among content-based and collaborative filtering; (2) identifying the user context with the integration of dynamic filtering; and (3) learning the profiles with the help of processing and screening of reflecting feedback loops. The experimental results were evaluated by using three absolute error measures, providing comparable results with other studies relative to machine learning domains. The effects of using the hybrid learning method are gathered with the help of the experimental results. Our experiments also show that the hybrid method improves accuracy by 14.61% of the average error predicted in the recommender systems in comparison to the collaborative methods, which mainly focus on the computation of similar entities. Full article
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21 pages, 3578 KiB  
Article
Spatial and Temporal Variation of Drought Based on Satellite Derived Vegetation Condition Index in Nepal from 1982–2015
by Binod Baniya, Qiuhong Tang, Ximeng Xu, Gebremedhin Gebremeskel Haile and Gyan Chhipi-Shrestha
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 430; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020430 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 5837
Abstract
Identification of drought is essential for many environmental and agricultural applications. To further understand drought, this study presented spatial and temporal variations of drought based on satellite derived Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) on annual (Jan–Dec), seasonal monsoon (Jun–Nov) and pre-monsoon (Mar–May) scales from [...] Read more.
Identification of drought is essential for many environmental and agricultural applications. To further understand drought, this study presented spatial and temporal variations of drought based on satellite derived Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) on annual (Jan–Dec), seasonal monsoon (Jun–Nov) and pre-monsoon (Mar–May) scales from 1982–2015 in Nepal. The Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) obtained from NOAA, AVHRR (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) and climate data from meteorological stations were used. VCI was used to grade the drought, and the Mann–Kendall test and linear trend analysis were conducted to examine drought trends and the Pearson correlation between VCI and climatic factors (i.e., temperature and precipitation) was also acquired. The results identified that severe drought was identified in 1982, 1984, 1985 and 2000 on all time scales. However, VCI has increased at the rate of 1.14 yr−1 (p = 0.04), 1.31 yr−1 (p = 0.03) and 0.77 yr−1 (p = 0.77) on the annual, seasonal monsoon and pre-monsoon scales, respectively. These increased VCIs indicated decreases in drought. However, spatially, increased trends of drought were also found in some regions in Nepal. For instance, northern areas mainly in the Trans-Himalayan regions identified severe drought. The foothills and the lowlands of Terai (southern Nepal) experienced normal VCI, i.e., no drought. Similarly, the Anomaly Vegetation Condition Index (AVCI) was mostly negative before 2000 which indicated deficient soil moisture. The exceedance probability analysis results on the annual time scale showed that there was a 20% chance of occurring severe drought (VCI ≤ 35%) and a 35% chance of occurring normal drought (35% ≤ VCI ≤ 50%) in Nepal. Drought was also linked with climates in which temperature on the annual and seasonal monsoon scales was significant and positively correlated with VCI. Drought occurrence and trends in Nepal need to be further studied for comprehensive information and understanding. Full article
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23 pages, 5106 KiB  
Article
A Transductive Model-based Stress Recognition Method Using Peripheral Physiological Signals
by Minjia Li, Lun Xie and Zhiliang Wang
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020429 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4250
Abstract
Existing research on stress recognition focuses on the extraction of physiological features and uses a classifier that is based on global optimization. There are still challenges relating to the differences in individual physiological signals for stress recognition, including dispersed distribution and sample imbalance. [...] Read more.
Existing research on stress recognition focuses on the extraction of physiological features and uses a classifier that is based on global optimization. There are still challenges relating to the differences in individual physiological signals for stress recognition, including dispersed distribution and sample imbalance. In this work, we proposed a framework for real-time stress recognition using peripheral physiological signals, which aimed to reduce the errors caused by individual differences and to improve the regressive performance of stress recognition. The proposed framework was presented as a transductive model based on transductive learning, which considered local learning as a virtue of the neighborhood knowledge of training examples. The degree of dispersion of the continuous labels in the y space was also one of the influencing factors of the transductive model. For prediction, we selected the epsilon-support vector regression (e-SVR) to construct the transductive model. The non-linear real-time features were extracted using a combination of wavelet packet decomposition and bi-spectrum analysis. The performance of the proposed approach was evaluated using the DEAP dataset and Stroop training. The results indicated the effectiveness of the transductive model, which had a better prediction performance compared to traditional methods. Furthermore, the real-time interactive experiment was conducted in field studies to explore the usability of the proposed framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Biosensors)
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15 pages, 6055 KiB  
Article
Guava Detection and Pose Estimation Using a Low-Cost RGB-D Sensor in the Field
by Guichao Lin, Yunchao Tang, Xiangjun Zou, Juntao Xiong and Jinhui Li
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020428 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 101 | Viewed by 8676
Abstract
Fruit detection in real outdoor conditions is necessary for automatic guava harvesting, and the branch-dependent pose of fruits is also crucial to guide a robot to approach and detach the target fruit without colliding with its mother branch. To conduct automatic, collision-free picking, [...] Read more.
Fruit detection in real outdoor conditions is necessary for automatic guava harvesting, and the branch-dependent pose of fruits is also crucial to guide a robot to approach and detach the target fruit without colliding with its mother branch. To conduct automatic, collision-free picking, this study investigates a fruit detection and pose estimation method by using a low-cost red–green–blue–depth (RGB-D) sensor. A state-of-the-art fully convolutional network is first deployed to segment the RGB image to output a fruit and branch binary map. Based on the fruit binary map and RGB-D depth image, Euclidean clustering is then applied to group the point cloud into a set of individual fruits. Next, a multiple three-dimensional (3D) line-segments detection method is developed to reconstruct the segmented branches. Finally, the 3D pose of the fruit is estimated using its center position and nearest branch information. A dataset was acquired in an outdoor orchard to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Quantitative experiments showed that the precision and recall of guava fruit detection were 0.983 and 0.948, respectively; the 3D pose error was 23.43° ± 14.18°; and the execution time per fruit was 0.565 s. The results demonstrate that the developed method can be applied to a guava-harvesting robot. Full article
(This article belongs to the Collection Sensors in Agriculture and Forestry)
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15 pages, 1754 KiB  
Article
HEALPix-IA: A Global Registration Algorithm for Initial Alignment
by Yongzhuo Gao, Zhijiang Du, Wei Xu, Mingyang Li and Wei Dong
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020427 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4291
Abstract
Methods of point cloud registration based on ICP algorithm are always limited by convergence rate, which is related to initial guess. A good initial alignment transformation can sharply reduce convergence time and raise efficiency. In this paper, we propose a global registration method [...] Read more.
Methods of point cloud registration based on ICP algorithm are always limited by convergence rate, which is related to initial guess. A good initial alignment transformation can sharply reduce convergence time and raise efficiency. In this paper, we propose a global registration method to estimate the initial alignment transformation based on HEALPix (Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelation of a sphere), an algorithm for spherical projections. We adopt EGI (Extended Gaussian Image) method to map the normals of the point cloud and estimate the transformation with optimized point correspondence. Cross-correlation method is used to search the best alignment results in consideration of the accuracy and robustness of the algorithm. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm were verified with created model and real data from various sensors in comparison with similar methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for MEMS and Microsystems)
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21 pages, 5139 KiB  
Article
Chemical Source Searching by Controlling a Wheeled Mobile Robot to Follow an Online Planned Route in Outdoor Field Environments
by Ji-Gong Li, Meng-Li Cao and Qing-Hao Meng
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020426 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4189
Abstract
In this paper, we present an estimation-based route planning (ERP) method for chemical source searching using a wheeled mobile robot and validate its effectiveness with outdoor field experiments. The ERP method plans a dynamic route for the robot to follow to search for [...] Read more.
In this paper, we present an estimation-based route planning (ERP) method for chemical source searching using a wheeled mobile robot and validate its effectiveness with outdoor field experiments. The ERP method plans a dynamic route for the robot to follow to search for a chemical source according to time-varying wind and an estimated chemical-patch path (C-PP), where C-PP is the historical trajectory of a chemical patch detected by the robot, and normally different from the chemical plume formed by the spatial distribution of all chemical patches previously released from the source. Owing to the limitations of normal gas sensors and actuation capability of ground mobile robots, it is quite hard for a single robot to directly trace the intermittent and rapidly swinging chemical plume resulting from the frequent and random changes of wind speed and direction in outdoor field environments. In these circumstances, tracking the C-PP originating from the chemical source back could help the robot approach the source. The proposed ERP method was tested in two different outdoor fields using a wheeled mobile robot. Experimental results indicate that the robot adapts to the time-varying airflow condition, arriving at the chemical source with an average success rate and approaching effectiveness of about 90% and 0.4~0.6, respectively. Full article
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20 pages, 8040 KiB  
Article
Damage Quantification with Embedded Piezoelectric Aggregates Based on Wavelet Packet Energy Analysis
by Zijian Wang, Li Wei and Maosen Cao
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020425 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3894
Abstract
Cement-based components have been widely used in civil engineering structures. However, due to wearing and deterioration, the cement-based components may have brittle failure. To provide early warning and to support predictive reinforcement, the piezoelectric materials are embedded into the cement-based components to excite [...] Read more.
Cement-based components have been widely used in civil engineering structures. However, due to wearing and deterioration, the cement-based components may have brittle failure. To provide early warning and to support predictive reinforcement, the piezoelectric materials are embedded into the cement-based components to excite and receive elastic waves. By recognizing the abnormalities in the elastic waves, hidden damage can be identified in advance. However, few research has been published regarding the damage quantification. In this paper, the wavelet packet analysis is adopted to calculate the energy of the transmitted elastic waves based on the improved piezoelectric aggregates (IPAs). Due to the growth of the damage, less elastic waves can pass through the damage zone, decreasing the energy of the acquired signals. A set of cement beams with different crack depths at the mid-span is tested in both numerical and experimental ways. A damage quantification index, namely the wavelet packet-based energy index (WPEI), is developed. Both the numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the WPEI decreases with respect to the crack depth. Based on the regression analysis, a strong linear relationship has been observed between the WPEI and the crack depth. By referring to the linear relationship, the crack depth can be estimated by the WPEI with a good accuracy. The results demonstrated that the use of the IPAs and the WPEI can fulfill the real-time quantification of the crack depth in the cement beams. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors Based NDE and NDT)
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15 pages, 3249 KiB  
Article
A Hybrid Method to Improve the BLE-Based Indoor Positioning in a Dense Bluetooth Environment
by Ke Huang, Ke He and Xuecheng Du
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 424; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020424 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 49 | Viewed by 6047
Abstract
Indoor positioning using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons has attracted considerable attention after the release of the BLE protocol. A number of efforts have been exerted to improve the performance of BLE-based indoor positioning. However, few studies pay attention to the BLE-based indoor [...] Read more.
Indoor positioning using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons has attracted considerable attention after the release of the BLE protocol. A number of efforts have been exerted to improve the performance of BLE-based indoor positioning. However, few studies pay attention to the BLE-based indoor positioning in a dense Bluetooth environment, where the propagation of BLE signals become more complex and more fluctuant. In this paper, we draw attention to the problems resulting from the dense Bluetooth environment, and it turns out that the dense Bluetooth environment would result in a high received signal strength indication (RSSI) variation and a longtime interval collection of BLE. Hence, to mitigate the effects of the dense Bluetooth environment, we propose a hybrid method fusing sliding-window filtering, trilateration, dead reckoning and the Kalman filtering method to improve the performance of the BLE indoor positioning. The Kalman filter is exploited to merge the trilateration and dead reckoning. Extensive experiments in a real implementation are conducted to examine the performance of three approaches: trilateration, dead reckoning and the fusion method. The implementation results proved that the fusion method was the most effective method to improve the positioning accuracy and timeliness in a dense Bluetooth environment. The positioning root-mean-square error (RMSE) calculation results have showed that the hybrid method can achieve a real-time positioning and reduce error of indoor positioning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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15 pages, 951 KiB  
Article
Spatio-Temporal Features in Action Recognition Using 3D Skeletal Joints
by Mihai Trăscău, Mihai Nan and Adina Magda Florea
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 423; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020423 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4067
Abstract
Robust action recognition methods lie at the cornerstone of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems employing optical devices. Using 3D skeleton joints extracted from depth images taken with time-of-flight (ToF) cameras has been a popular solution for accomplishing these tasks. Though seemingly scarce in [...] Read more.
Robust action recognition methods lie at the cornerstone of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems employing optical devices. Using 3D skeleton joints extracted from depth images taken with time-of-flight (ToF) cameras has been a popular solution for accomplishing these tasks. Though seemingly scarce in terms of information availability compared to its RGB or depth image counterparts, the skeletal representation has proven to be effective in the task of action recognition. This paper explores different interpretations of both the spatial and the temporal dimensions of a sequence of frames describing an action. We show that rather intuitive approaches, often borrowed from other computer vision tasks, can improve accuracy. We report results based on these modifications and propose an architecture that uses temporal convolutions with results comparable to the state of the art. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Internet of Things)
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14 pages, 1734 KiB  
Article
Low-Temperature Storage Improves the Over-Time Stability of Implantable Glucose and Lactate Biosensors
by Giulia Puggioni, Giammario Calia, Paola Arrigo, Andrea Bacciu, Gianfranco Bazzu, Rossana Migheli, Silvia Fancello, Pier Andrea Serra and Gaia Rocchitta
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020422 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4323
Abstract
Molecular biomarkers are very important in biology, biotechnology and even in medicine, but it is quite hard to convert biology-related signals into measurable data. For this purpose, amperometric biosensors have proven to be particularly suitable because of their specificity and sensitivity. The operation [...] Read more.
Molecular biomarkers are very important in biology, biotechnology and even in medicine, but it is quite hard to convert biology-related signals into measurable data. For this purpose, amperometric biosensors have proven to be particularly suitable because of their specificity and sensitivity. The operation and shelf stability of the biosensor are quite important features, and storage procedures therefore play an important role in preserving the performance of the biosensors. In the present study two different designs for both glucose and lactate biosensor, differing only in regards to the containment net, represented by polyurethane or glutharaldehyde, were studied under different storage conditions (+4, −20 and −80 °C) and monitored over a period of 120 days, in order to evaluate the variations of kinetic parameters, as VMAX and KM, and LRS as the analytical parameter. Surprisingly, the storage at −80 °C yielded the best results because of an unexpected and, most of all, long-lasting increase of VMAX and LRS, denoting an interesting improvement in enzyme performances and stability over time. The present study aimed to also evaluate the impact of a short-period storage in dry ice on biosensor performances, in order to simulate a hypothetical preparation-conservation-shipment condition. Full article
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22 pages, 2172 KiB  
Article
Appearance-Based Salient Regions Detection Using Side-Specific Dictionaries
by Mian Muhammad Sadiq Fareed, Qi Chun, Gulnaz Ahmed, Adil Murtaza, Muhammad Rizwan Asif and Muhammad Zeeshan Fareed
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 421; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020421 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3479
Abstract
Image saliency detection is a very helpful step in many computer vision-based smart systems to reduce the computational complexity by only focusing on the salient parts of the image. Currently, the image saliency is detected through representation-based generative schemes, as these schemes are [...] Read more.
Image saliency detection is a very helpful step in many computer vision-based smart systems to reduce the computational complexity by only focusing on the salient parts of the image. Currently, the image saliency is detected through representation-based generative schemes, as these schemes are helpful for extracting the concise representations of the stimuli and to capture the high-level semantics in visual information with a small number of active coefficients. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for salient region detection that uses appearance-based and regression-based schemes. The framework segments the image and forms reconstructive dictionaries from four sides of the image. These side-specific dictionaries are further utilized to obtain the saliency maps of the sides. A unified version of these maps is subsequently employed by a representation-based model to obtain a contrast-based salient region map. The map is used to obtain two regression-based maps with LAB and RGB color features that are unified through the optimization-based method to achieve the final saliency map. Furthermore, the side-specific reconstructive dictionaries are extracted from the boundary and the background pixels, which are enriched with geometrical and visual information. The approach has been thoroughly evaluated on five datasets and compared with the seven most recent approaches. The simulation results reveal that our model performs favorably in comparison with the current saliency detection schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visual Sensors)
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20 pages, 1143 KiB  
Article
Indoor Positioning System Based on Chest-Mounted IMU
by Chuanhua Lu, Hideaki Uchiyama, Diego Thomas, Atsushi Shimada and Rin-ichiro Taniguchi
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 420; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020420 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 55 | Viewed by 7793
Abstract
Demand for indoor navigation systems has been rapidly increasing with regard to location-based services. As a cost-effective choice, inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) systems have been developed for years because they do not require external devices to be installed in [...] Read more.
Demand for indoor navigation systems has been rapidly increasing with regard to location-based services. As a cost-effective choice, inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) systems have been developed for years because they do not require external devices to be installed in the environment. In this paper, we propose a PDR system based on a chest-mounted IMU as a novel installation position for body-suit-type systems. Since the IMU is mounted on a part of the upper body, the framework of the zero-velocity update cannot be applied because there are no periodical moments of zero velocity. Therefore, we propose a novel regression model for estimating step lengths only with accelerations to correctly compute step displacement by using the IMU data acquired at the chest. In addition, we integrated the idea of an efficient map-matching algorithm based on particle filtering into our system to improve positioning and heading accuracy. Since our system was designed for 3D navigation, which can estimate position in a multifloor building, we used a barometer to update pedestrian altitude, and the components of our map are designed to explicitly represent building-floor information. With our complete PDR system, we were awarded second place in 10 teams for the IPIN 2018 Competition Track 2, achieving a mean error of 5.2 m after the 800 m walking event. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensor Fusion and Novel Technologies in Positioning and Navigation)
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14 pages, 2982 KiB  
Article
Ripeness Prediction of Postharvest Kiwifruit Using a MOS E-Nose Combined with Chemometrics
by Dongdong Du, Jun Wang, Bo Wang, Luyi Zhu and Xuezhen Hong
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 419; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020419 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 52 | Viewed by 5581
Abstract
Postharvest kiwifruit continues to ripen for a period until it reaches the optimal “eating ripe” stage. Without damaging the fruit, it is very difficult to identify the ripeness of postharvest kiwifruit by conventional means. In this study, an electronic nose (E-nose) with 10 [...] Read more.
Postharvest kiwifruit continues to ripen for a period until it reaches the optimal “eating ripe” stage. Without damaging the fruit, it is very difficult to identify the ripeness of postharvest kiwifruit by conventional means. In this study, an electronic nose (E-nose) with 10 metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors was used to predict the ripeness of postharvest kiwifruit. Three different feature extraction methods (the max/min values, the difference values and the 70th s values) were employed to discriminate kiwifruit at different ripening times by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and results showed that the 70th s values method had the best performance in discriminating kiwifruit at different ripening stages, obtaining a 100% original accuracy rate and a 99.4% cross-validation accuracy rate. Partial least squares regression (PLSR), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) were employed to build prediction models for overall ripeness, soluble solids content (SSC) and firmness. The regression results showed that the RF algorithm had the best performance in predicting the ripeness indexes of postharvest kiwifruit compared with PLSR and SVM, which illustrated that the E-nose data had high correlations with overall ripeness (training: R2 = 0.9928; testing: R2 = 0.9928), SSC (training: R2 = 0.9749; testing: R2 = 0.9143) and firmness (training: R2 = 0.9814; testing: R2 = 0.9290). This study demonstrated that E-nose could be a comprehensive approach to predict the ripeness of postharvest kiwifruit through aroma volatiles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronic Noses and Their Application)
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14 pages, 5339 KiB  
Article
Combining Non-Uniform Time Slice and Finite Difference to Improve 3D Ghost Imaging
by Fanghua Zhang, Jie Cao, Qun Hao, Kaiyu Zhang, Yang Cheng, Yingbo Wang and Yongchao Feng
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020418 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3574
Abstract
Three-dimensional ghost imaging (3DGI) using a detector is widely used in many applications. The performance of 3DGI based on a uniform time slice is difficult to improve because obtaining an accurate time-slice position remains a challenge. This paper reports a novel structure based [...] Read more.
Three-dimensional ghost imaging (3DGI) using a detector is widely used in many applications. The performance of 3DGI based on a uniform time slice is difficult to improve because obtaining an accurate time-slice position remains a challenge. This paper reports a novel structure based on non-uniform time slice combined with finite difference. In this approach, finite difference is beneficial to improving sensitivity of zero crossing to accurately obtain the position of the target in the field of view. Simultaneously, non-uniform time slice is used to quickly obtain 3DGI on an interesting target. Results show that better performances of 3DGI are obtained by our proposed method compared to the traditional method. Moreover, the relation between time slice and the signal-noise-ratio of 3DGI is discussed, and the optimal differential distance is obtained, thus motivating the development of a high-performance 3DGI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Depth Sensors and 3D Vision)
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17 pages, 6799 KiB  
Article
Robust Kalman Filter Aided GEO/IGSO/GPS Raw-PPP/INS Tight Integration
by Zhouzheng Gao, You Li, Yuan Zhuang, Honglei Yang, Yuanjin Pan and Hongping Zhang
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020417 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4930
Abstract
Reliable and continuous navigation solutions are essential for high-accuracy location-based services. Currently, the real-time kinematic (RTK) based Global Positioning System (GPS) is widely utilized to satisfy such requirements. However, RTK’s accuracy and continuity are limited by the insufficient number of the visible satellites [...] Read more.
Reliable and continuous navigation solutions are essential for high-accuracy location-based services. Currently, the real-time kinematic (RTK) based Global Positioning System (GPS) is widely utilized to satisfy such requirements. However, RTK’s accuracy and continuity are limited by the insufficient number of the visible satellites and the increasing length of base-lines between reference-stations and rovers. Recently, benefiting from the development of precise point positioning (PPP) and BeiDou satellite navigation systems (BDS), the issues existing in GPS RTK can be mitigated by using GPS and BDS together. However, the visible satellite number of GPS + BDS may decrease in dynamic environments. Therefore, the inertial navigation system (INS) is adopted to bridge GPS + BDS PPP solutions during signal outage periods. Meanwhile, because the quality of BDS geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellites is much lower than that of inclined geo-synchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites, the predicted observation residual based robust extended Kalman filter (R-EKF) is adopted to adjust the weight of GEO and IGSO data. In this paper, the mathematical model of the R-EKF aided GEO/IGSO/GPS PPP/INS tight integration, which uses the raw observations of GPS + BDS, is presented. Then, the influences of GEO, IGSO, INS, and R-EKF on PPP are evaluated by processing land-borne vehicle data. Results indicate that (1) both GEO and IGSO can provide accuracy improvement on GPS PPP; however, the contribution of IGSO is much more visible than that of GEO; (2) PPP’s accuracy and stability can be further improved by using INS; (3) the R-EKF is helpful to adjust the weight of GEO and IGSO in the GEO/IGSO/GPS PPP/INS tight integration and provide significantly higher positioning accuracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)
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13 pages, 7231 KiB  
Article
Ambulatory Evaluation of ECG Signals Obtained Using Washable Textile-Based Electrodes Made with Chemically Modified PEDOT:PSS
by Amale Ankhili, Xuyuan Tao, Cédric Cochrane, Vladan Koncar, David Coulon and Jean-Michel Tarlet
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 416; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020416 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 42 | Viewed by 5629
Abstract
A development of washable PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate) polyamide textile-based electrodes is an interesting alternative to the traditional Ag/AgCl disposable electrodes, usually used in clinical practice, helping to improve medical assessment and treatment before apparition or progress of patients’ cardiovascular symptoms. This study [...] Read more.
A development of washable PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate) polyamide textile-based electrodes is an interesting alternative to the traditional Ag/AgCl disposable electrodes, usually used in clinical practice, helping to improve medical assessment and treatment before apparition or progress of patients’ cardiovascular symptoms. This study was conducted in order to determine whether physical properties of PEDOT:PSS had a significant impact on the coated electrode’s electrocardiogram (ECG) signal quality, particularly after 50 washing cycles in a domestic laundry machine. Tests performed, included the comparison of two PEDOT:PSS solutions, in term of viscosity with emphasis on wetting tests, including surface tension and contact angle measurements. In addition, polyamide textile fabrics were used as substrate to make thirty electrodes and to characterize the amount of PEDOT:PSS absorbed as a function of time. The results showed that surface tension of PEDOT:PSS had a significant impact on the wetting of polyamide textile fabric and consequently on the absorbed amount. In fact, lower values of surface tension of the solution lead to low values contact angles between PEDOT:PSS and textile fabric (good wettability). Before washing, no significant difference has been observed among signal-to-noise ratios measured (SNR) for coated electrodes by the two PEDOT:PSS solutions. However, after 50 washing cycles, SNR decreased strongly for electrodes coated by the solution that had low viscosity, since it contained less solid contents. That was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy images (SEM) and also by analyzing the color change of electrodes based on the calculation of CIELAB color space coordinates. Moreover, spectral power density of recorded ECG signals has been computed and presented. All cardiac waves were still visible in the ECG signals after 50 washing cycles. Furthermore, an experienced cardiologist considered that all the ECG signals acquired were acceptable. Accordingly, our newly developed polyamide textile-based electrodes seem to be suitable for long-term monitoring. The study also provided new insights into the better choice of PEDOT:PSS formulation as a function of a specific process in order to manufacture cheaper electrodes faster. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Textiles and Wearable Sensors)
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18 pages, 712 KiB  
Article
A Regulatory View on Smart City Services
by Mario Weber and Ivana Podnar Žarko
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020415 - 21 Jan 2019
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 7091
Abstract
Even though various commercial Smart City solutions are widely available on the market, we are still witnessing their rather limited adoption, where solutions are typically bound to specific verticals or remain in pilot stages. In this paper we argue that the lack of [...] Read more.
Even though various commercial Smart City solutions are widely available on the market, we are still witnessing their rather limited adoption, where solutions are typically bound to specific verticals or remain in pilot stages. In this paper we argue that the lack of a Smart City regulatory framework is one of the major obstacles for a wider adoption of Smart City services in practice. Such framework should be accompanied by examples of good practice which stress the necessity of adopting interoperable Smart City services. Development and deployment of Smart City services can incur significant costs to cities, service providers and sensor manufacturers, and thus it is vital to adjust national legislation to ensure legal certainty to all stakeholders, and at the same time to protect interests of the citizens and the state. Additionally, due to a vast number of heterogeneous devices and Smart City services, both existing and future, their interoperability becomes vital for service replicability and massive deployment leading to digital transformation of future cities. The paper provides a classification of technical and regulatory characteristics of IoT services for Smart Cities which are mapped to corresponding roles in the IoT value chain. Four example use cases are chosen—Smart Parking, Smart Metering, Smart Street Lighting and Mobile Crowd Sensing—to showcase the legal implications relevant to each service. Based on the analysis, we propose a set of recommendations for each role in the value chain related to regulatory requirements of the aforementioned Smart City services. The analysis and recommendations serve as examples of good practice in hope that they will facilitate a wider adoption and longevity of IoT-based Smart City services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Cities)
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19 pages, 1735 KiB  
Article
A Pattern-Based Approach for Detecting Pneumatic Failures on Temporary Immersion Bioreactors
by Octavio Loyola-González, Miguel Angel Medina-Pérez, Dayton Hernández-Tamayo, Raúl Monroy, Jesús Ariel Carrasco-Ochoa and Milton García-Borroto
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 414; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020414 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5101
Abstract
Temporary Immersion Bioreactors (TIBs) are used for increasing plant quality and plant multiplication rates. These TIBs are actioned by mean of a pneumatic system. A failure in the pneumatic system could produce severe damages into the TIB. Consequently, the whole biological process would [...] Read more.
Temporary Immersion Bioreactors (TIBs) are used for increasing plant quality and plant multiplication rates. These TIBs are actioned by mean of a pneumatic system. A failure in the pneumatic system could produce severe damages into the TIB. Consequently, the whole biological process would be aborted, increasing the production cost. Therefore, an important task is to detect failures on a temporary immersion bioreactor system. In this paper, we propose to approach this task using a contrast pattern based classifier. We show that our proposal, for detecting pneumatic failures in a TIB, outperforms other approaches reported in the literature. In addition, we introduce a feature representation based on the differences among feature values. Additionally, we collected a new pineapple micropropagation database for detecting four new types of pneumatic failures on TIBs. Finally, we provide an analysis of our experimental results together with experts in both biotechnology and pneumatic devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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10 pages, 2380 KiB  
Article
Three-Dimensional Monitoring of Plant Structural Parameters and Chlorophyll Distribution
by Kenta Itakura, Itchoku Kamakura and Fumiki Hosoi
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020413 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5354
Abstract
Image analysis is widely used for accurate and efficient plant monitoring. Plants have complex three-dimensional (3D) structures; hence, 3D image acquisition and analysis is useful for determining the status of plants. Here, 3D images of plants were reconstructed using a photogrammetric approach, called [...] Read more.
Image analysis is widely used for accurate and efficient plant monitoring. Plants have complex three-dimensional (3D) structures; hence, 3D image acquisition and analysis is useful for determining the status of plants. Here, 3D images of plants were reconstructed using a photogrammetric approach, called “structure from motion”. Chlorophyll content is an important parameter that determines the status of plants. Chlorophyll content was estimated from 3D images of plants with color information. To observe changes in the chlorophyll content and plant structure, a potted plant was kept for five days under a water stress condition and its 3D images were taken once a day. As a result, the normalized Red value and the chlorophyll content were correlated; a high R2 value (0.81) was obtained. The absolute error of the chlorophyll content estimation in cross-validation studies was 4.0 × 10−2 μg/mm2. At the same time, the structural parameters (i.e., the leaf inclination angle and the azimuthal angle) were calculated by simultaneously monitoring the changes in the plant’s status in terms of its chlorophyll content and structural parameters. By combining these parameters related to plant information in plant image analysis, early detection of plant stressors, such as water stress, becomes possible. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)
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17 pages, 1923 KiB  
Article
Differential Equation-Based Prediction Model for Early Change Detection in Transient Running Status
by Xin Wen, Guangyuan Chen, Guoliang Lu, Zhiliang Liu and Peng Yan
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 412; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020412 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3783
Abstract
Early detection of changes in transient running status from sensor signals attracts increasing attention in modern industries. To achieve this end, this paper presents a new differential equation-based prediction model that can realize one-step-ahead prediction of machine status. Together with this model, an [...] Read more.
Early detection of changes in transient running status from sensor signals attracts increasing attention in modern industries. To achieve this end, this paper presents a new differential equation-based prediction model that can realize one-step-ahead prediction of machine status. Together with this model, an analysis of continuous monitoring of condition signal by means of a null hypothesis testing is presented to inspect/diagnose whether an abnormal status change occurs or not during successive machine operations. The detection operation is executed periodically and continuously, such that the machine running status can be monitored with an online and real-time manner. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated using three representative real-engineering applications: external loading status monitoring, bearing health status monitoring and speed condition monitoring. The method is also compared with those benchmark methods reported in the literature. From the results, the proposed method demonstrates significant improvements over others, which suggests its superiority and great potentials in real applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for Prognostics and Health Management)
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17 pages, 878 KiB  
Article
Experimentation Management in the Co-Created Smart-City: Incentivization and Citizen Engagement
by Johnny Choque, Luis Diez, Arturo Medela and Luis Muñoz
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 411; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020411 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3709
Abstract
Under the smart city paradigm, cities are changing at a rapid pace. In this context, it is necessary to develop tools that allow service providers to perform rapid deployments of novel solutions that can be validated by citizens. In this sense, the OrganiCity [...] Read more.
Under the smart city paradigm, cities are changing at a rapid pace. In this context, it is necessary to develop tools that allow service providers to perform rapid deployments of novel solutions that can be validated by citizens. In this sense, the OrganiCity experimentation-as-a-service platform brings about a unique solution to experiment with new urban services in a co-creative way, among all the involved stakeholders. On top of this, it is also necessary to ensure that users are engaged in the experimentation process, so as to guarantee that the resulting services actually fulfill their needs. In this work, we present the engagement monitoring framework that has been developed within the OrganiCity platform. This framework permits the tailored definition of metrics according to the experiment characteristics and provides valuable information about how citizens react to service modifications and incentivization campaigns. Full article
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27 pages, 2654 KiB  
Article
Visible-Light Camera Sensor-Based Presentation Attack Detection for Face Recognition by Combining Spatial and Temporal Information
by Dat Tien Nguyen, Tuyen Danh Pham, Min Beom Lee and Kang Ryoung Park
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020410 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5026
Abstract
Face-based biometric recognition systems that can recognize human faces are widely employed in places such as airports, immigration offices, and companies, and applications such as mobile phones. However, the security of this recognition method can be compromised by attackers (unauthorized persons), who might [...] Read more.
Face-based biometric recognition systems that can recognize human faces are widely employed in places such as airports, immigration offices, and companies, and applications such as mobile phones. However, the security of this recognition method can be compromised by attackers (unauthorized persons), who might bypass the recognition system using artificial facial images. In addition, most previous studies on face presentation attack detection have only utilized spatial information. To address this problem, we propose a visible-light camera sensor-based presentation attack detection that is based on both spatial and temporal information, using the deep features extracted by a stacked convolutional neural network (CNN)-recurrent neural network (RNN) along with handcrafted features. Through experiments using two public datasets, we demonstrate that the temporal information is sufficient for detecting attacks using face images. In addition, it is established that the handcrafted image features efficiently enhance the detection performance of deep features, and the proposed method outperforms previous methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Deep Learning-Based Image Sensors)
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15 pages, 4359 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of a Wi-Fi Signal Based System for Freeway Traffic States Monitoring: An Exploratory Field Test
by Fan Ding, Xiaoxuan Chen, Shanglu He, Guangming Shou, Zhen Zhang and Yang Zhou
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 409; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020409 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3612
Abstract
Monitoring traffic states from the road is arousing increasing concern from traffic management authorities. To complete the picture of real-time traffic states, novel data sources have been introduced and studied in the transportation community for decades. This paper explores a supplementary and novel [...] Read more.
Monitoring traffic states from the road is arousing increasing concern from traffic management authorities. To complete the picture of real-time traffic states, novel data sources have been introduced and studied in the transportation community for decades. This paper explores a supplementary and novel data source, Wi-Fi signal data, to extract traffic information through a well-designed system. An IoT (Internet of Things)-based Wi-Fi signal detector consisting of a solar power module, high capacity module, and IoT functioning module was constructed to collect Wi-Fi signal data. On this basis, a filtration and mining algorithm was developed to extract traffic state information (i.e., travel time, traffic volume, and speed). In addition, to evaluate the performance of the proposed system, a practical field test was conducted through the use of the system to monitor traffic states of a major corridor in China. The comparison results with loop data indicated that traffic speed obtained from the system was consistent with that collected from loop detectors. The mean absolute percentage error reached 3.55% in the best case. Furthermore, the preliminary analysis proved the existence of the highly correlated relationship between volumes obtained from the system and from loop detectors. The evaluation confirmed the feasibility of applying Wi-Fi signal data to acquisition of traffic information, indicating that Wi-Fi signal data could be used as a supplementary data source for monitoring real-time traffic states. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Sensor Networks)
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24 pages, 4406 KiB  
Article
Infrared-Inertial Navigation for Commercial Aircraft Precision Landing in Low Visibility and GPS-Denied Environments
by Lei Zhang, Zhengjun Zhai, Lang He, Pengcheng Wen and Wensheng Niu
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020408 - 20 Jan 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5720
Abstract
This paper proposes a novel infrared-inertial navigation method for the precise landing of commercial aircraft in low visibility and Global Position System (GPS)-denied environments. Within a Square-root Unscented Kalman Filter (SR_UKF), inertial measurement unit (IMU) data, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) images and airport geo-information [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a novel infrared-inertial navigation method for the precise landing of commercial aircraft in low visibility and Global Position System (GPS)-denied environments. Within a Square-root Unscented Kalman Filter (SR_UKF), inertial measurement unit (IMU) data, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) images and airport geo-information are integrated to estimate the position, velocity and attitude of the aircraft during landing. Homography between the synthetic image and the real image which implicates the camera pose deviations is created as vision measurement. To accurately extract real runway features, the current results of runway detection are used as the prior knowledge for the next frame detection. To avoid possible homography decomposition solutions, it is directly converted to a vector and fed to the SR_UKF. Moreover, the proposed navigation system is proven to be observable by nonlinear observability analysis. Last but not least, a general aircraft was elaborately equipped with vision and inertial sensors to collect flight data for algorithm verification. The experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed method could be used for the precise landing of commercial aircraft in low visibility and GPS-denied environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerospace Sensors and Multisensor Systems)
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