Smart Electronics & Imaging Techniques

A new house built in a Gainesville senior community shows how electronic home care assistance can keep a home secure, give reminders about medications and call for emergency help.

Engineers from our computer & information science & engineering department are working on the so-called "smart home" in hopes of giving elderly people the freedom to stay in their own homes instead of moving into nursing homes late in life. The collection of technologies includes sensors in floors and beds, cell phones programmed to call the pharmacy when medications need refilled and microwaves able to read barcodes and adjust cook times according. Even the occupant is fitted with a discreet electronic sensor, which can notify someone upon a fall.

In the same department, other researchers have developed detectors for the military that use group-penetrating radar to find plastic land mines. The technology utilizes near-infrared light to locate roadside booby traps.

Early detection is the best hope for treating and curing breast cancer. One of our electrical engineers is studying microwave signal processing to improve detection techniques. Another faculty member, this one in the biomedical engineering department, is developing a detection technique that uses an array of fiber optics to project near-infrared light at different angles. The technique is relatively painless, and researchers hope it will replace several much more invasive testing mechanisms.

Satellite imaging can tell farmers where field crops are growing well and where they need more water, thanks to UF agricultural engineers.

A new technique for inspecting space shuttle insulation foam and tiles is being used at Kennedy Space Center, thanks to work done by our nuclear engineers on backscatter radiation imaging.