University of California

Benjamin D Shaw

Atac Tuli

Tamir Kamai

Jan W Hopmans

Kirk Van Katwyk

Harry H Cheng

Xudong Hu

Joe Palen

Jonathan E Larson

A method and apparatus for near real-time in-situ soil solution measurements is presented. An outer sleeve is placed in soil where ionic concentrations of organic or inorganic species are to be measured. A porous section connects with the outer sleeve (the porous section initially loaded with distilled water) equilibrates with the solution present in soil pores to form a solution to be measured. The initial distilled water is displaced within the porous section by a removable plunger. After substantial equilibration of the solution to be measured within the apparatus, the plunger is removed and a removable probe replaced. The probe may be an Ion Selective Electrode, or a transflection dip probe. The probe then may be used under computer control for measurement of solution properties. The Ion Selective Electrode may measure nitrate (NO) concentrations. The transflection dip probe may be read with spectrometer with an input deuterium light source.

In-situ soil nitrate ion concentration sensor

In current practice, quantitative traffic data is most commonly acquired from inductive loops. In addition, video-image processing or time-of-flight laser systems can be used. These methods all have problems associated with them. Therefore, we have developed a new type of non-intrusive laser-based detection system for measurement of vehicle travel time. The system employs a fan angle laser, an image lens, a set of cylindrical optics, a linear photodetector array, and associated signal processing hardware and software. The system is positioned above the plane of detection and configured such that it can unambiguously find the object boundaries in all lighting conditions independent of the time-of-flight of the laser. Instead of depending upon the reflectance of the object being detected, or determination of the range or distance from the detector to the object being detected, the invention reflects the laser off of the pavement or other roadway surface. The lack of a reflection determines the size, shape, and &ldquo;presence&rdquo; of the vehicle, and the system is capable of determining the length and width of moving objects, as well as travel time, in real time with high resolution.

Non-intrusive laser-based system for detecting objects moving across a planar surface

Growing community of inventors

Davis, CA, United States of America

Benjamin D Shaw