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Reviews some of the improvements in image sensor technology that are yielding applications in the medical field.

Discusses the characteristics and gives examples of cameras and imaging sensors used in endoscopy, microscopy, pharmaceutical label inspection and X‐radiography. Reviews some innovative camera‐based products for endoscopy, skin imaging and health monitoring.

Improvements in camera resolution, miniaturisation and interfacing are widening the applications in medical imaging and enabling the development of some exciting new products addressing the needs of patients and medical staff.

Identifies some suppliers of medical imaging devices and their applications.

To establish an accurate and sensitive method to characterize the moisture content of a particular environment.

This paper proposes a relatively simple humidity sensor design consisting of electrodes on a suitable substrate coated with a polyimide material. The changes in relative humidity are denoted by a corresponding change in the polyimide material's electrical resistance profile. The design proposed in this work can be microfabricated and integrated with electronic circuitry. This sensor can be fabricated on alumina or silicon substrates. The electrode material can be made up of nickel, gold or aluminum and the thickness of the electrodes ranges typically between 0.2 and 0.3 μm. The sensor consists of an active sensing layer on top of a set of electrodes. The design of the electrodes can be configured for both resistive and capacitive sensing.

The polyimide material's ohmic resistance changes significantly with humidity variations. Changes in resistance as large as 4‐6 orders of magnitude are attainable over the entire operational humidity range.

As the sensitivity varies non‐linearly with the humidity, the measurement has to be carried out over a very wide range in order to calibrate the sensor. The sensitivity and output range of the sensor can be easily controlled by changing the electrode spacing or geometry.

The control of humidity is important in many applications ranging from bio‐medical to space exploration.

A simple, easy to fabricate and measure, and low cost resistive‐type humidity sensor was developed. The realized sensor is suitable for integrating with microfabrication. Hence, multiple sensors of varying sensitivities and output ranges could be integrated on the same chip. Over the last few years, newly emerging micro‐electro‐mechanical‐systems technology and micro‐fabrication techniques have gained popularity and importance in the miniaturization of a variety of sensors and actuators.

Describes the history and development of biosensors and their commercial application.

Provides background information on different forms of biosensors and how they can be brought to market. This review is edited from a very detailed market research report “Medical and Biological Sensor and Sensor Systems: markets, applications and competitors worldwide”.

Finds that the commercial potential for biosensors is very large and is expected to reach US$ 2.3 billion worldwide in 2005.

The full market research report provides a detailed insight into biosensors and how they are made and the various application areas, together with discussion regarding a large number of vendor and research companies.

Introduction of an automated laboratory system for a new field of laboratory operation, namely cultivation and handling of live brain tissue.

The company's expertise in manual throughput was transferred to automatable methods. Processing data is used for scheduling purposes to yield efficient production of results.

Automated process has comparable survival rates and high reproducibility. Time tolerance is lower than for manual operation.

Several bottle necks of the system have been identified and are to be improved upon in future research. These are especially “handling of membrane inserts” and slow‐running procedures.

Cataloging of activity data (timestamps, parameters, etc.) allows for much easier statistical analysis and data‐mining than with manual operation data.

Tissue‐based, high‐throughput screening is a seminal field in laboratory automation.

To describe a new high sensitivity, nanotechnology‐based technique for detecting DNA and disease‐related proteins.

Gold nanoparticles and magnetic microparticles are bound to single‐stranded DNA molecules that are complementary to segments of the target DNA. The nanoparticles also link to hundreds of strands of “barcode” DNA and in the presence of the target, each molecule binds to a gold nanoparticle and a magnetic microparticle. Applying a magnetic field enables the separation of the target molecules and their attachments. The DNA is removed from the molecules and detected by a chip‐based DNA procedure. As each nanoparticle links to a large number of strands of DNA, the method amplifies the signal from each target molecule. The technique can also detect proteins by replacing the complimentary DNA with antibodies.

This research shows that this technique can detect very low concentrations of DNA and proteins. Ten copies of anthrax DNA were detected in 30 μl of solution, a sensitivity comparable to polymerase chain reaction, and 18‐20 PSA molecules were detected in a 10 μl sample, a level of detection that is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional assays. Recent research has also shown that the assay can detect ADDLs, which are biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. The technologies are now being commercialised by Nanosphere, Inc.

These developments offer prospects in a wide range of clinical applications such as the rapid and simple diagnosis of a variety of diseases and single nucleotide polymorphisms tests for the detection of hypercoagulation disorders. Other potential applications include homeland security and environmental monitoring.

Aims to design a heterogeneous embedded system with CPLD and microcontroller as co‐processors sharing a memory module.

The system receives external analog input signal, which is applied to the PIC 16F73 microcontroller. Upon converting the data in to digital format using the on‐chip ADC, the PIC stores the digitized version in the SRAM (HCM 6264) chip. SRAM HCM 6264 has been used as a shared memory model, of which both the PIC and CPLD can access all the locations. Once the PIC passes controls to the CPLD, the further processing is carried out by the CPLD without any intervention of the PIC. This is a true example of co‐processing of the architecturally diversified computing modules from completely different vendors with totally different programming suits.

The board has been tested with IC temperature sensors and also found to be useful for sensor array applications involving three types of processing viz. analog (through instrumentation amplifier), real‐time digital (through microcontroller) and customized reconfigurable digital (with the CPLD).

The system has several potential applications in avionics, military and robotic embedded systems, which have inherent real‐time constraints that need to be supported by the underlying hardware and driver programs.

Discusses the rare and unique combination of diversified processing core to build an embedded system.

Aims to report on a new trend of research and development in the wireless capsule endoscope.

Presents a conceptual design of a wireless capsule endoscope having new features like navigation control, self‐propulsion, higher rate image transmission, acquisition of samples, application of medications and so forth.

The basic principle has been verified by experiments. Seems promising.

Yet to need a lot of effort for commercialization.

If successful, it will provide another way of least invasive medical treatment that must reduce pain of patients drastically.

Taking advantage of the state‐of‐the‐art micro‐technology it suggests a further step beyond the current wireless capsule endoscope.

Examines some of the recent technical developments that are leading to a wider use of powerful methods in medical microscopy.

Reviews some of the microscopic techniques relevant to medicine, then looks at hardware developments in microscopes, filters and cameras.

Highly sophisticated techniques such as time‐resolved fluorescence measurements are now incorporated in turnkey instruments, using picosecond diode lasers for accurate measurement of fluorescent lifetimes. Advances in optical fibre coating technology in the telecoms field have led to improved filters for fluorescence microscopy, and imaging allows the detection of non‐visible wavelengths and very low light levels. Many microscopes are modular, so that users can upgrade to further capabilities at will. Automatic medical diagnosis software is coming onto the market.

Highlights the hardware and software developments that are enabling powerful microscopic methodologies to enter into general use.