Metrology and Measurement Systems

We introduce two new Kirchhoff-law-Johnson-noise (KLJN) secure key distribution schemes which are generalizations of the original KLJN scheme. The first of these, the Random-Resistor (RR-) KLJN scheme, uses random resistors with values chosen from a quasi-continuum set. It is well-known since the creation of the KLJN concept that such a system could work in cryptography, because Alice and Bob can calculate the unknown resistance value from measurements, but the RR-KLJN system has not been addressed in prior publications since it was considered impractical. The reason for discussing it now is the second scheme, the Random Resistor Random Temperature (RRRT-) KLJN key exchange, inspired by a recent paper of Vadai, Mingesz and Gingl, wherein security was shown to be maintained at non-zero power flow. In the RRRT-KLJN secure key exchange scheme, both the resistances and their temperatures are continuum random variables. We prove that the security of the RRRT-KLJN scheme can prevail at a non-zero power flow, and thus the physical law guaranteeing security is not the Second Law of Thermodynamics but the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem. Alice and Bob know their own resistances and temperatures and can calculate the resistance and temperature values at the other end of the communication channel from measured voltage, current and power-flow data in the wire. However, Eve cannot determine these values because, for her, there are four unknown quantities while she can set up only three equations. The RRRT-KLJN scheme has several advantages and makes all former attacks on the KLJN scheme invalid or incomplete.

Quality of energy produced in renewable energy systems has to be at the high level specified by respective standards and directives. One of the most important factors affecting quality is the estimation accuracy of grid signal parameters. This paper presents a method of a very fast and accurate amplitude and phase grid signal estimation using the Fast Fourier Transform procedure and maximum decay side-lobes windows. The most important features of the method are elimination of the impact associated with the conjugate’s component on the results and its straightforward implementation. Moreover, the measurement time is very short ‒ even far less than one period of the grid signal. The influence of harmonics on the results is reduced by using a bandpass pre-filter. Even using a 40 dB FIR pre-filter for the grid signal with THD ≈ 38%, SNR ≈ 53 dB and a 20‒30% slow decay exponential drift the maximum estimation errors in a real-time DSP system for 512 samples are approximately 1% for the amplitude and approximately 8.5・10‒2 rad for the phase, respectively. The errors are smaller by several orders of magnitude with using more accurate pre-filters.

A modification of the descriptor in a human detector using Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) is presented. The proposed modification requires inserting the values of average cell brightness resulting in the increase of the descriptor length from 3780 to 3908 values, but it is easy to compute and instantly gives ≈ 25% improvement of the miss rate at 10‒4 False Positives Per Window (FPPW). The modification has been tested on two versions of HOG-based descriptors: the classic Dalal-Triggs and the modified one, where, instead of spatial Gaussian masks for blocks, an additional central cell has been used. The proposed modification is suitable for hardware implementations of HOG-based detectors, enabling an increase of the detection accuracy or resignation from the use of some hardware-unfriendly operations, such as a spatial Gaussian mask. The results of testing its influence on the brightness changes of test images are also presented. The descriptor may be used in sensor networks equipped with hardware acceleration of image processing to detect humans in the images.

An analytical expression for the standard deviation of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) estimation is derived. It applies to the case where the estimator uses sine fitting. It is shown that, in common circumstances, it is inversely proportional to the actual value of THD, the signal-to-noise ratio and the square root of the number of samples. The proposed expression is validated both with numerical simulations and an experimental setup using a Monte Carlo procedure.

In this paper precision of the system controlling delivery by a helicopter of a water capsule designed for extinguishing large scale fires is analysed. The analysis was performed using a numerical method of distribution propagation (the Monte Carlo method) supplemented with results of application of the uncertainty propagation method. In addition, the optimum conditions for the airdrop are determined to ensure achieving the maximum area covered by the water capsule with simultaneous preserving the precision level necessary for efficient fire extinguishing.

A novel method for thermal diffusivity evolution of thin-film materials with pulsed Gaussian beam and infrared video is reported. Compared with common pulse methods performed in specialized labs, the proposed method implements a rapid on-line measurement without producing the off-centre detection error. Through mathematical deduction of the original heat conduction model, it is discovered that the area s, which is encircled by the maximum temperature curve rTMAX(θ), increases linearly over elapsed time. The thermal diffusivity is acquired from the growth rate of the area s. In this study, the off-centre detection error is avoided by performing the distance regularized level set evolution formulation. The area s was extracted from the binary images of temperature variation rate, without inducing errors from determination of the heat source centre. Thermal diffusivities of three materials, 304 stainless steel, titanium, and zirconium have been measured with the established on-line detection system, and the measurement errors are: −2.26%, −1.07%, and 1.61% respectively.

The issues connected with the complex design of various facilities, including up-to-date boiler equipment as well as the ways of organizing the space around them, are the reasons why there is often a lack of room for mounting a flowmeter in accordance with the recommendations of manufacturers. In most cases the problem is associated with ensuring sufficient lengths of straight pipe leading into and out of a flowmeter. When this condition cannot be fulfilled, the uncertainty of measurement increases above the value guaranteed by the manufacturer of the flowmeter. This sort of operation problem has encouraged the authors of this paper to undertake research aimed at the analysis of applicability of averaging Pitot tubes in the areas of flow disturbance.

In the article, analysis of the work conditions and the metrological characteristics of the air gauges dedicated for the roundness assessment is described. To reach the required accuracy of the acquired data, the phenomena of gas dynamics had to be analyzed in the whole flow through elements of the air gauge. A model based on the second critical parameters was used, because it reflects the true processes of the air flow. As a result, fast and accurate simulations provided series of the characteristics to be considered. Nevertheless, the chosen air gauge configuration underwent the experimental verification of its metrological characteristics. Finally, the entire measurement system Geoform with the gauge head based on the chosen air gauges underwent the accuracy test in order to make sure of its overall measurement quality.

This paper presents a preoperative hip reconstruction method with diagnosed osteoarthritis using Durom Hip Resurfacing System (DHRS). The method is based on selection and application of the resurfacing to the pelvis reconstructed on the basis of computed tomography. Quality and geometrical parameters of distinguished tissues have a fundamental significance for locating and positioning the acetabular and femoral components. The application precedes the measurements of anatomical structures on a complex numerical model. The developed procedure enables functional selection of endo-prosthesis and its positioning in such a way that it secures geometric parameters within the bone bed and the depth , inclination angles and ante-version of the acetabular component, the neck-shaft angle and ante-torsion angle of the neck of the femoral bone, and reconstruction of the biomechanical axis of the limb and the physiological point of rotation in the implanted joint. Proper biomechanics of the bone-joint complex of the lower limb is determined by correlation of anatomical-geometrical parameters of the acetabular component and parameters of the femoral bone.

The paper presents a new method for building measuring instruments and systems for gyro-free determination of the parameters of moving objects. To illustrate the qualities of this method, a system for measuring the roll, pitch, heel and trim of a ship has been developed on its basis. The main concept of the method is based, on one hand, on a simplified design of the base coordinate system in the main measurement channel so as to reduce the instrumental errors, and, on the other hand, on an additional measurement channel operating in parallel with the main one and whose hardware and software platform makes possible performing algorithms intended to eliminate the dynamic error in real time. In this way, as well as by using suitable adaptive algorithms in the measurement procedures, low-cost measuring systems operating with high accuracy under conditions of inertial effects and whose parameters (intensity and frequency of the maximum in the spectrum) change within a wide range can be implemented.

This paper presents optimisation of a measuring probe path in inspecting the prismatic parts on a CMM. The optimisation model is based on: (i) the mathematical model that establishes an initial collision-free path presented by a set of points, and (ii) the solution of Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) obtained with Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO). In order to solve TSP, an ACO algorithm that aims to find the shortest path of ant colony movement (i.e. the optimised path) is applied. Then, the optimised path is compared with the measuring path obtained with online programming on CMM ZEISS UMM500 and with the measuring path obtained in the CMM inspection module of Pro/ENGINEER® software. The results of comparing the optimised path with the other two generated paths show that the optimised path is at least 20% shorter than the path obtained by on-line programming on CMM ZEISS UMM500, and at least 10% shorter than the path obtained by using the CMM module in Pro/ENGINEER®.

Layers of silver particles are used in the studies on pathophysiology and treatment of diseases, both in pre-clinical and clinical conditions. Silver layers can be formed using different techniques and on different substrates. Deposition by magnetron sputtering on glass beads was used in this study. Silver absorption by the body was estimated by calculating the difference in thickness of the silver nanolayer deposited on a bead and measured before and after application of the bead in an animal model of gastrointestinal inflammation. Recommendations for the minimal thickness of silver nanolayer deposited on glass beads were worked out for further studies.

This study addresses the problem of magnetic field emission produced by the laptop computers. Although, the magnetic field is spread over the entire frequency spectrum, the most dangerous part of it to the laptop users is the frequency range from 50 to 500 Hz, commonly called the extremely low frequency magnetic field. In this frequency region the magnetic field is characterized by high peak values. To examine the influence of laptop’s magnetic field emission in the office, a specific experiment is proposed. It includes the measurement of the magnetic field at six laptop’s positions, which are in close contact to its user. The results obtained from ten different laptop computers show the extremely high emission at some positions, which are dependent on the power dissipation or bad ergonomics. Eventually, the experiment extracts these dangerous positions of magnetic field emission and suggests possible solutions.