Sensor fair reveals growing role for optics

17 Jun 2002

About 1 in 10 of the papers to be presented from around the world at Sensor 99 will be on the subject of optical sensors.

Speakers at the event, in the Exhibition Centre Nuernberg, Germany, on 18 to 20 May, will describe optical sensors capable of measuring heat, strain, volatile organic compounds, colour, ultraviolet, and oxygen for example. They will also present means of detecting the presence of people in rooms, microscopy, and measuring the temperature distribution on spinning tyres with infrared light.

One big advantage of an optical sensor is that it has little or no effect on what it is measuring. The range of the papers on these sensors at the event shows the increasing range of applications of optics in industry.

There will also be 660 exhibitors at this Ninth International trade Fair for Sensors, Transducers and Systems of all kinds. The organisers say that the number of overseas exhibitors has risen by 30% to 200 this year. JB