Applied Industrial Optics Day 1
Arlene Smith, Ph.D.
Next, Martin Garbos (Buekert Fluid Control Systems, Germany) presented on 'Modular Optical Sensor System for Fluidic Online Analysis Applications'. Improvement of water monitoring techniques is critical to avoid water-related disease. Optical technologies offer substance-specific, concentration-dependant, non-intrusive methods to measure turbidity (water clarity) and spectral absorption. The final speaker in the session, Marion O'Farrell (SINTEF, Norway), introduced the UTOFIA project, a Horizon 2020-funded collaboration addressing the need for autonomous, high-quality optical 3D measurements underwater. Range gating techniques remove backscattered light before it reaches the object, thus extending the imaging range over conventional video imaging systems.
After a break for coffee, the AIO Keynote speaker led us into the second session of the day, 'Oil & Gas in the Photonics Frontier'. Sarah Kobaslija (Aramco Research Center, USA) presented ‘Optical Materials and Systems for Nondestructive Testing in the Oil and Gas Industry’, a fascinating glimpse into the challenges and considerations of sensing in this field. Aramco uses a variety of optical systems in its regular operations, including remote and real-time detection and identification of oils spills using fluorescence techniques, and non-intrusive, safe remote monitoring of gas and oil pipelines using fiber optic sensor technology.
Next, Axel Kramer (ABB Switzerland, Switzerland) described a robust optical gas analyzer for on-line process monitoring, providing real-time evaluation and fast feedback for improved process control. Nicholas Andrews (Queen's Univ, Canada) introduced the application of fluorescence spectroscopy and linear sweep voltammetry to antioxidant analysis in lubricant oil. Sogol Borjian Borojeni (Queen's Univ, Canada) rounded out the session with a talk on real-time heavy metal detection using silicon-on-insulator ring resonators.
AIO took a very long lunch break, with no afternoon session, giving attendees a chance to sample some talks from other Topical Meetings in the Congress.
Ilko Ilev (FDA, USA) opened the final session of Day 1 'Medical Photonics: Reality Check' with a talk titled 'Sensing Medical Device Contaminations via a Novel Integrated Fiber-Optic Infrared Spectroscopy Approach'. Medical device contamination has become a critical and prevalent saftey issue in clinical practice and public health. Due to very low level contaminants on medical devices, accurate sensing is challenging. Ilko presented a novel sensing approach based on FO-FTIR (Fiber-Optic Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry) for non-contact, rapid and chemical-free detection.
Anant Agrawal (FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, USA) presented 'Phantoms for the Assessment of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Imaging Performance: A Review'. Anant presented two types of phantoms - non-tissue mimicking, such as a piece of glass or a USAF bar chart, and tissue-mimicking, which can be simplistic or hyper-realistic models - and three methods to assess OCT sensitivity, along with the types of materials used in their construction. William Vogt (FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, USA) continued the theme with 'Standarization and Phantom-based Performance Evaluation of Biophotonic Devices for Clinical Imaging'. Phantoms reduce the need for in-vivo animal studies and clinical trials during imaging system development. Newer biophotonic imaging modalities present special challenges, for example, Photoacoustic Tomography (PAT) phantoms need to mimic tissue optical and acoustic properties.
Anant and William then joined David Cuccia (Modulated Imaging, USA) for a panel discussion on the ‘Use and Standardization of Optical Phantoms for Medical Devices’. Topics considered (by both the audience and the panelists!) included whether a standardized phantom is really achieveable (in an area where companies often develop their own phantom specific to their product), what is meant by a standardized phantom (is it the method of making the phantom, the materials used, or the measurement method?), and whose responsibility is it to create this standard phantom?
We rounded out the evening at the Congress Welcome Reception, with beer and nibbles to keep the conversation flowing.
