Optical Fiber Sensors Volume IV: Applications, Analysis, and Future Trends

Abstract

This book completes an account of Fibre Optic Sensor Technology commenced by the same Editors in 1988. The first two volumes, produced in 1988 - 89, formed a pair, and Volumes III and IV follow the same pattern: one (volume III) covering theory and basics, and the present volume (volume IV) covering applications. As in the previous pair, the numbering of chapters and pages follows consecutively through the two volumes, so that they are clearly intended to be read together. Chapters cover chemical sensing, (using direct spectroscopy, using indicator dyes, and dynamic light scattering); and in-vivo medical sensing. These are followed by chapters on fibre optic gyros, mechanical condition monitoring, and sensors in industrial systems. Distributed and multiplexed sensors are covered, including a chapter on smart structures, and the final chapter summarises the commercial presence of fibre optic sensors. The book thus constitutes a fairly comprehensive account of the current state of the art. That the technology has made considerable strides in the intervening years since the publication of volumes I and II is clear from a glance at this volume no less than volume III. The editors have cast the net more widely than in volume III in the selection of authors of individual chapters, and the results are correspondingly uneven. In a book such as this, covering a wide range of applications, it is always difficult to aim at the right technical level. The majority of authors have succeeded in providing a concise account of their topic, giving sufficient information for a reader who has a background in optics and sensing to gain an overview, and making references to sources for deeper study. For example I felt that the chapter on fibre-optic gyros does this admirably. However, it seemed to me that some authors have fallen into the trap of providing a level of detail which would be more of interest to the specialist in their subject, while others, on the other hand, have merely described an assortment of devices or applications without conveying an overall view of their topic. I feel that Optical Fiber Sensors: Applications, Analysis, and Future Trends falls short of fulfilling the promise of the preceding volume, which in my view portrayed the current situation admirably. I have puzzled for some time over why this is, and my conclusion is the lack of a unifying theme in the whole volume, and also within many of the chapters: `applications' are there, but the `analysis' and the `future trends' are less easy to find. Maybe the editors could have insisted on these aspects being spelled out in the individual chapters, but what I feel is really needed is an overall discussion of the technology of optical sensors, and its position in the wider spectrum of sensor technology as a whole. With their own background, having been involved in the optical sensing since its earliest days, perhaps there are few who could have done this better than the editors themselves. Optical Fiber Sensors: Applications, Analysis, and Future Trends complements the recently published Optical Fiber sensors: Components and Subsystems and provides a useful picture of the technology and its applications in the late 1990s. Although some may think that it might have been improved by deeper comment and analysis of the field, and by an attempt to draw together the various strands which have been covered, it is nonetheless required reading for those seriously involved in the subject.