Optical sensors and techniques are used widely in many areas of instrumentation and measurement. Optical sensors are often, conveniently, ‘non-contact’, and thus impose negligible disturbance of the parameter undergoing measurement. Valuable information can be represented and recorded in space, time, and optical wavelength. They can provide exceptionally high spatial and/or temporal resolution, high bandwidth, and range. Moreover, optical sensors can be inexpensive and relatively simple to use.
At the Bioinstrumentation Lab at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, we are particularly interested in developing techniques for measuring parameters from and inside and outside the body. Such measurements help us to quantify physiological performance, detect and treat disease, and develop novel medical and scientific instruments. In making such measurements we often draw upon and develop our own optical sensing and measurement methods – from interferometry, fluorimetry and diffuse light imaging, to area-based and volume-based optical imaging and processing techniques.
In this talk, I will overview some of the new interesting optically-based methods that we have recently developed for use in bioengineering applications. These include 1) diffuse optical imaging methods for monitoring the depth of a drug as it is rapidly injected through the skin, without requiring a needle; 2) stretchy soft optical sensors for measuring strains of up to several 100 % during movement; 3) multi-camera image registration techniques for measuring the 3D shape and strain of soft tissues; 4) optical coherence tomography techniques for detecting the 3D shape of deforming muscle tissues, and 5) polarization-sensitive imaging techniques for classifying the optical and mechanical properties of biological membranes.
While these techniques sensors and techniques have been motivated by applications in bioengineering, the underlying principles have broad applicability to other areas of instrumentation and measurement.
