This PDF file contains the editorial “Happy New Year and Reviewer Appreciation” for OE Vol. 55 Issue 01

This PDF file contains the editorial “2015 List of Reviewers” for OE Vol. 55 Issue 01

Traditional visible light communication (VLC) uses positive-intrinsic-negative photodiode (PD) or avalanche PD as the optical receivers (Rx). We demonstrate using a solar cell as the VLC Rx. The solar cell is flexible and low cost and converts the optical signal into an electrical signal directly without the need of external power supply. In addition to acting as the VLC passive Rx, the converted electrical signal from the solar cell can charge up the battery of the Rx nodes. Hence, the proposed scheme can be a promising candidate for the future Internet of Things network. However, a solar cell acting as a VLC Rx is very challenging, since the response of the solar cell is limited. Here, we propose and demonstrate using predistortion to significantly enhance the solar cell Rx response for the first time up to the authors’ knowledge. Experimental results show that the response of the solar cell Rx is significantly enhanced; and the original 2-kHz detection bandwidth of the solar cell can be enhanced by 250 times for receiving 500-kbit/s VLC signal at a transmission distance of 1 m. The operation principle, the generated voltage by the solar cell, and the maximum data rates achieved at different transmission distances are also studied.

This PDF file contains the editorial “Special Section Guest Editorial:Structural Health Monitoring: Use of Guided Waves and/or Nonlinear Acoustic Techniques” for OE Vol. 55 Issue 01

Interest in using the higher harmonic generation of ultrasonic guided wave modes for nondestructive evaluation continues to grow tremendously as the understanding of nonlinear guided wave propagation has enabled further analysis. The combination of the attractive properties of guided waves with the attractive properties of higher harmonic generation provides a very unique potential for characterization of incipient damage, particularly in plate and shell structures. Guided waves can propagate relatively long distances, provide access to hidden structural components, have various displacement polarizations, and provide many opportunities for mode conversions due to their multimode character. Moreover, higher harmonic generation is sensitive to changing aspects of the microstructures such as to the dislocation density, precipitates, inclusions, and voids. We review the recent advances in the theory of nonlinear guided waves, as well as the numerical simulations and experiments that demonstrate their utility.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study in which guided ultrasonic waves are used for the contactless nondestructive testing of a plate immersed in water. In the experiment, narrowband leaky Lamb waves are generated using a focused transducer and are detected with an array of five immersion sensors arranged in a semicircle. The ultrasonic signals are processed to extract a few damage-sensitive features from the time and frequency domains. These features are then fed to an artificial neural network to identify the presence of hidden defects, i.e., defects devised on the surface of the plate not facing the probing system. We find that the noncontact inspection system and the signal processing technique enable the classification of the plate health with a success rate >75%.

Carbonation causes a physicochemical alteration of cement-based materials, leading to a decrease of porosity and an increase of material hardness and strength. However, carbonation will decrease the pH of the internal pore water solution, which may depassivate the internal reinforcing steel, giving rise to structural durability concerns. Therefore, the proper selection of materials informed by parameters sensitive to the carbonation process is crucial to ensure the durability of concrete structures. The authors investigate the feasibility of using linear and nonlinear dynamic vibration response data to monitor the progression of the carbonation process in cement-based materials. Mortar samples with dimensions of 40×40×160  mm were subjected to an accelerated carbonation process through a carbonation chamber with 55% relative humidity and <95% of CO₂ atmosphere. The progress of carbonation in the material was monitored using data obtained with the test setup of the standard resonant frequency test (ASTM C215-14), from a pristine state until an almost fully carbonated state. Linear dynamic modulus, quality factor, and a material nonlinear response, evaluated through the upward resonant frequency shift during the signal ring-down, were investigated. The compressive strength and the depth of carbonation were also measured. Carbonation resulted in a modest increase in the dynamic modulus, but a substantive increase in the quality factor (inverse attenuation) and a decrease in the material nonlinearity parameter. The combined measurement of the vibration quality factor and nonlinear parameter shows potential as a sensitive measure of material changes brought about by carbonation.

We present an overview of research developments related to the nonlinear vibroacoustic modulation technique used for structural damage detection. The method of interest is based on nonlinear interactions of a low-frequency pumping wave and a high-frequency probing wave. These two waves are introduced to monitored structures simultaneously. Then the presence of damage is exhibited by additional frequency components that result from nonlinear damage-wave interactions. A vast amount of research has been performed in this area over the last two decades. We aim to present the state-of-the-art of these developments. The major focus is on monitoring approaches, modeling aspects, actuation/sensing, signal processing, and application examples.

Applicability of specific Lamb wave modes for delamination detection and quantification in a laminated aluminum plate is investigated. The Lamb modes were generated in the plate using a broadband piezoelectric transducer structured with a rigid electrode. Appropriate excitation frequencies and modes for inspection were selected from theoretical dispersion curves. Sensitivity of antisymmetric and symmetric modes for delamination detection and quantification has been investigated using the Hilbert–Huang transform. The mode conversion phenomenon of Lamb waves during progressive delamination is observed. The antisymmetric mode is found to be more reliable for delamination detection and quantification. In this investigation, the changes in the phase of guided Lamb wave modes are related to the degree of delamination, unlike other studies, where mostly the attenuation of the propagating waves has been related to the extent of the internal damage, such as cracks and corrosions. Appropriate features for delamination detection and quantification are extracted from the experimental data.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) based on guided waves allows assessing the health of a structure due to the sensitivity to the occurrence of delamination. However, wave propagation presents several complexities for effective damage identification in composite structures. An efficient implementation of a guided wave-based SHM system requires an accurate analysis of collected data to obtain a useful detection. This paper is concerned with the identification of small emerging delaminations in composite structural components using a sparse array of surface ultrasonic transducers. An ultrasonic-guided wave tomography technique focused on impact damage detection in composite plate-like structures is presented. A statistical damage index approach is adopted to interpret the recorded signals, and a subsequent graphic interpolation is implemented to reconstruct the damage appearance. Experimental tests carried out on a typical composite structure demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed technique with the aim to investigate the presence and location of damage using simple imaging reports and a limited number of measurements. A traditional ultrasonic inspection (C-scan) is used to assess the methodology.

This study aims at evaluating the feasibility of strain measurement and crack detection in thin unbonded concrete pavement overlays with pulse prepump Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Single-mode optical fibers with two-layer and three-layer coatings, respectively, were applied as fully distributed sensors, their performances were compared with analytical predictions. They were successfully protected from damage during concrete casting of three full-scale concrete panels when 5 to 10-cm-thick protective mortar covers had been set for 2 h. Experimental results from three-point loading tests of the panels indicated that the strain distributions measured from the two types of sensors were in good agreement, and cracks can be detected at sharp peaks of the measured strain distributions. The two-layer and three-layer coated fibers can be used to measure strains up to 2.33% and 2.42% with a corresponding sensitivity of 5.43×10−⁵ and 4.66×10−⁵  GHz/μϵ, respectively. Two cracks as close as 7 to 9 cm can be clearly detected. The measured strains in optical fiber were lower than the analytical prediction by 10% to 25%. Their difference likely resulted from strain transfer through various coatings, idealized point loading, varying optical fiber embedment, and concrete heterogeneity.

A method capable of characterizing artificial weathering damage in dimension stone cladding using access to one side only is presented. Dolomitic limestone test samples with increasing levels of damage were created artificially by exposing undamaged samples to increasing temperature levels of 100°C, 200°C, 300°C, 400°C, 500°C, 600°C, and 700°C for a 90 min period of time. Using access to one side only, these test samples were nondestructively evaluated using a nonlinear approach based upon noncollinear wave mixing, which involves mixing two critically refracted dilatational ultrasonic waves. Criteria were used to assure that the detected scattered wave originated via wave interaction in the limestone and not from nonlinearities in the testing equipment. Bending tests were used to evaluate the flexure strength of beam samples extracted from the artificially weathered samples. It was observed that the percentage of strength reduction is linearly correlated (R²=98) with the temperature to which the specimens were exposed; it was noted that samples exposed to 400°C and 600°C had a strength reduction of 60% and 90%, respectively. It was also observed that results from the noncollinear wave mixing approach correlated well (R²=0.98) with the destructively obtained percentage of strength reduction.

It is difficult to visually track a user’s hand because of the many degrees of freedom (DOF) a hand has. For this reason, most model-based hand pose tracking methods have relied on the use of multiview images or RGB-D images. This paper proposes a model-based method that accurately tracks three-dimensional hand poses using monocular RGB images in real time. The main idea of the proposed method is to reduce hand tracking ambiguity by adopting a step-by-step estimation scheme consisting of three steps performed in consecutive order: palm pose estimation, finger yaw motion estimation, and finger pitch motion estimation. In addition, this paper proposes highly effective algorithms for each step. With the assumption that a human hand can be considered as an assemblage of articulated planes, the proposed method uses a piece-wise planar hand model which enables hand model regeneration. The hand model regeneration modifies the hand model to fit the current user’s hand and improves the accuracy of the hand pose estimation results. Above all, the proposed method can operate in real time using only CPU-based processing. Consequently, it can be applied to various platforms, including egocentric vision devices such as wearable glasses. The results of several experiments conducted verify the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.

The statistics of detector outputs produced by an imaging system are derived from basic radiometric concepts and definitions. We show that a fundamental way of describing a photon-limited imaging system is in terms of a Poisson random process in spatial, angular, and wavelength variables. We begin the paper by recalling the concept of radiance in geometrical optics, radiology, physical optics, and quantum optics. The propagation and conservation laws for radiance in each of these domains are reviewed. Building upon these concepts, we distinguish four categories of imaging detectors that all respond in some way to the incident radiance, including the new category of photon-processing detectors (capable of measuring radiance on a photon-by-photon basis). This allows us to rigorously show how the concept of radiance is related to the statistical properties of detector outputs and to the information content of a single detected photon. A Monte-Carlo technique, which is derived from the Boltzmann transport equation, is presented as a way to estimate probability density functions to be used in reconstruction from photon-processing data.

Li et al. and Yang et al. proposed (t,s,k,n)-essential secret image sharing methods to share a secret image into essential shadows and nonessential shadows. However, if the shadows have been distributed to the holders and extra shadows are required, the processes of regenerating and retransmitting shadows are necessary. In the proposed method, when receiving t essential shadows and k−t nonessential shadows, the total size of the adopted shadow is the same as the size of the secret image. Most importantly, the proposed method achieves less size of total required shadows (when using the minimal essential shadows) than what was proposed by Li et al. and achieves less size of essential shadow than the method contended by Yang et al. Moreover, we can have the additional shadows relate to other existing shadows without regenerating.