Sensors & Transducers
Volume 114, Issue 3, www.sensorsportal.com
March 2010
Editors-in-Chief: professor Sergey Y. Yurish, tel.: +34 696067716, fax: +34 93 4011989, e-mail: editor@sensorsportal.com
Editors for Western Europe
Meijer, Gerard C.M., Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Ferrari, Vittorio, Universitá di Brescia, Italy
Editor South America
Costa-Felix, Rodrigo, Inmetro, Brazil
Editor for Eastern Europe
Sachenko, Anatoly, Ternopil State Economic University, Ukraine
Editorial Advisory Board
Abdul Rahim, Ruzairi, Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia
Ahmad, Mohd Noor, Nothern University of Engineering, Malaysia
Annamalai, Karthigeyan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology, Japan
Arcega, Francisco, University of Zaragoza, Spain
Arguel, Philippe, CNRS, France
Ahn, Jae-Pyoung, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea
Arndt, Michael, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
Ascoli, Giorgio, George Mason University, USA
Atalay, Selcuk, Inonu University, Turkey
Atghiaee, Ahmad, University of Tehran, Iran
Augutis, Vygantas, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
Avachit, Patil Lalchand, North Maharashtra University, India
Ayesh, Aladdin, De Montfort University, UK
Bahreyni, Behraad, University of Manitoba, Canada
Baliga, Shankar, B., General Monitors Transnational, USA
Baoxian, Ye, Zhengzhou University, China
Barford, Lee, Agilent Laboratories, USA
Barlingay, Ravindra, RF Arrays Systems, India
Basu, Sukumar, Jadavpur University, India
Beck, Stephen, University of Sheffield, UK
Ben Bouzid, Sihem, Institut National de Recherche Scientifique, Tunisia
Benachaiba, Chellali, Universitaire de Bechar, Algeria
Binnie, T. David, Napier University, UK
Bischoff, Gerlinde, Inst. Analytical Chemistry, Germany
Bodas, Dhananjay, IMTEK, Germany
Borges Carval, Nuno, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
Bousbia-Salah, Mounir, University of Annaba, Algeria
Bouvet, Marcel, CNRS – UPMC, France
Brudzewski, Kazimierz, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Cai, Chenxin, Nanjing Normal University, China
Cai, Qingyun, Hunan University, China
Campanella, Luigi, University La Sapienza, Italy
Carvalho, Vitor, Minho University, Portugal
Cecelja, Franjo, Brunel University, London, UK
Cerda Belmonte, Judith, Imperial College London, UK
Chakrabarty, Chandan Kumar, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia
Chakravorty, Dipankar, Association for the Cultivation of Science, India
Changhai, Ru, Harbin Engineering University, China
Chaudhari, Gajanan, Shri Shivaji Science College, India
Chavali, Murthy, VIT University, Tamil Nadu, India
Chen, Jiming, Zhejiang University, China
Chen, Rongshun, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Cheng, Kuo-Sheng, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Chiang, Jeffrey (Cheng-Ta), Industrial Technol. Research Institute, Taiwan
Chiriac, Horia, National Institute of Research and Development, Romania
Chowdhuri, Arijit, University of Delhi, India
Chung, Wen-Yaw, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Corres, Jesus, Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain
Cortes, Camilo A., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Courtois, Christian, Universite de Valenciennes, France
Cusano, Andrea, University of Sannio, Italy
D'Amico, Arnaldo, Università di Tor Vergata, Italy
De Stefano, Luca, Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystem, Italy
Deshmukh, Kiran, Shri Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Barshi, India
Dickert, Franz L., Vienna University, Austria
Dieguez, Angel, University of Barcelona, Spain
Dimitropoulos, Panos, University of Thessaly, Greece
Ding, Jianning, Jiangsu Polytechnic University, China
Kim, Min Young, Kyungpook National University, Korea South
ISSN 1726-5479
Editors for North America
Datskos, Panos G., Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Fabien, J. Josse, Marquette University, USA
Katz, Evgeny, Clarkson University, USA
Editor for Asia
Ohyama, Shinji, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Editor for Asia-Pacific
Mukhopadhyay, Subhas, Massey University, New Zealand
Djordjevich, Alexandar, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Donato, Nicola, University of Messina, Italy
Donato, Patricio, Universidad de Mar del Plata, Argentina
Dong, Feng, Tianjin University, China
Drljaca, Predrag, Instersema Sensoric SA, Switzerland
Dubey, Venketesh, Bournemouth University, UK
Enderle, Stefan, Univ.of Ulm and KTB Mechatronics GmbH, Germany
Erdem, Gursan K. Arzum, Ege University, Turkey
Erkmen, Aydan M., Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Estelle, Patrice, Insa Rennes, France
Estrada, Horacio, University of North Carolina, USA
Faiz, Adil, INSA Lyon, France
Fericean, Sorin, Balluff GmbH, Germany
Fernandes, Joana M., University of Porto, Portugal
Francioso, Luca, CNR-IMM Institute for Microelectronics and
Microsystems, Italy
Francis, Laurent, University Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Fu, Weiling, South-Western Hospital, Chongqing, China
Gaura, Elena, Coventry University, UK
Geng, Yanfeng, China University of Petroleum, China
Gole, James, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Gong, Hao, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Gonzalez de la Rosa, Juan Jose, University of Cadiz, Spain
Granel, Annette, Goteborg University, Sweden
Graff, Mason, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Guan, Shan, Eastman Kodak, USA
Guillet, Bruno, University of Caen, France
Guo, Zhen, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Gupta, Narendra Kumar, Napier University, UK
Hadjiloucas, Sillas, The University of Reading, UK
Haider, Mohammad R., Sonoma State University, USA
Hashsham, Syed, Michigan State University, USA
Hasni, Abdelhafid, Bechar University, Algeria
Hernandez, Alvaro, University of Alcala, Spain
Hernandez, Wilmar, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
Homentcovschi, Dorel, SUNY Binghamton, USA
Horstman, Tom, U.S. Automation Group, LLC, USA
Hsiai, Tzung (John), University of Southern California, USA
Huang, Jeng-Sheng, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Huang, Star, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Huang, Wei, PSG Design Center, USA
Hui, David, University of New Orleans, USA
Jaffrezic-Renault, Nicole, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France
Jaime Calvo-Galleg, Jaime, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
James, Daniel, Griffith University, Australia
Janting, Jakob, DELTA Danish Electronics, Denmark
Jiang, Liudi, University of Southampton, UK
Jiang, Wei, University of Virginia, USA
Jiao, Zheng, Shanghai University, China
John, Joachim, IMEC, Belgium
Kalach, Andrew, Voronezh Institute of Ministry of Interior, Russia
Kang, Moonho, Sunmoon University, Korea South
Kaniusas, Eugenijus, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Katake, Anup, Texas A&M University, USA
Kausel, Wilfried, University of Music, Vienna, Austria
Kavasoglu, Nese, Mugla University, Turkey
Ke, Cathy, Tyndall National Institute, Ireland
Khan, Asif, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
Sapozhnikova, Ksenia, D.I.Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology, Russia
Saxena, Vibha, Bhbha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India
Ko, Sang Choon, Electronics. and Telecom. Research Inst., Korea South Schneider, John K., Ultra-Scan Corporation, USA
Kockar, Hakan, Balikesir University, Turkey Seif, Selemani, Alabama A & M University, USA
Kotulska, Malgorzata, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland Seifter, Achim, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
Kratz, Henrik, Uppsala University, Sweden Sengupta, Deepak, Advance Bio-Photonics, India
Kumar, Arun, University of South Florida, USA Shearwood, Christopher, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Kumar, Subodh, National Physical Laboratory, India Shin, Kyuho, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea
Kung, Chih-Hsien, Chang-Jung Christian University, Taiwan Shmaliy, Yuriy, Kharkiv National Univ. of Radio Electronics, Ukraine
Lacnjevac, Caslav, University of Belgrade, Serbia Silva Girao, Pedro, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
Lay-Ekuakille, Aime, University of Lecce, Italy Singh, V. R., National Physical Laboratory, India
Lee, Jang Myung, Pusan National University, Korea South Slomovitz, Daniel, UTE, Uruguay
Lee, Jun Su, Amkor Technology, Inc. South Korea Smith, Martin, Open University, UK
Lei, Hua, National Starch and Chemical Company, USA Soleymanpour, Ahmad, Damghan Basic Science University, Iran
Li, Genxi, Nanjing University, China Somani, Prakash R., Centre for Materials for Electronics Technol., India
Li, Hui, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Srinivas, Talabattula, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Li, Xian-Fang, Central South University, China Srivastava, Arvind K., Northwestern University, USA
Liang, Yuanchang, University of Washington, USA Stefan-van Staden, Raluca-Ioana, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Liawruangrath, Saisunee, Chiang Mai University, Thailand Sumriddetchka, Sarun, National Electronics and Computer Technology
Liew, Kim Meow, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Center, Thailand
Lin, Hermann, National Kaohsiung University, Taiwan Sun, Chengliang, Polytechnic University, Hong-Kong
Lin, Paul, Cleveland State University, USA Sun, Dongming, Jilin University, China
Linderholm, Pontus, EPFL - Microsystems Laboratory, Switzerland Sun, Junhua, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
Liu, Aihua, University of Oklahoma, USA Sun, Zhiqiang, Central South University, China
Liu Changgeng, Louisiana State University, USA Suri, C. Raman, Institute of Microbial Technology, India
Liu, Cheng-Hsien, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Sysoev, Victor, Saratov State Technical University, Russia
Liu, Songqin, Southeast University, China Szewczyk, Roman, Industrial Research Inst. for Automation and
Lodeiro, Carlos, University of Vigo, Spain Measurement, Poland
Lorenzo, Maria Encarnacio, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain Tan, Ooi Kiang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,
Lukaszewicz, Jerzy Pawel, Nicholas Copernicus University, Poland Tang, Dianping, Southwest University, China
Ma, Zhanfang, Northeast Normal University, China Tang, Jaw-Luen, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Majstorovic, Vidosav, University of Belgrade, Serbia Teker, Kasif, Frostburg State University, USA
Marquez, Alfredo, Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados, Thumbavanam Pad, Kartik, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Mexico Tian, Gui Yun, University of Newcastle, UK
Matay, Ladislav, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia Tsiantos, Vassilios, Technological Educational Institute of Kaval, Greece
Mathur, Prafull, National Physical Laboratory, India Tsigara, Anna, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Greece
Maurya, D.K., Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore Twomey, Karen, University College Cork, Ireland
Mekid, Samir, University of Manchester, UK Valente, Antonio, University, Vila Real, - U.T.A.D., Portugal
Melnyk, Ivan, Photon Control Inc., Canada Vaseashta, Ashok, Marshall University, USA
Mendes, Paulo, University of Minho, Portugal Vazquez, Carmen, Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain
Mennell, Julie, Northumbria University, UK Vieira, Manuela, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Portugal
Mi, Bin, Boston Scientific Corporation, USA Vigna, Benedetto, STMicroelectronics, Italy
Minas, Graca, University of Minho, Portugal Vrba, Radimir, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
Moghavvemi, Mahmoud, University of Malaya, Malaysia Wandelt, Barbara, Technical University of Lodz, Poland
Mohammadi, Mohammad-Reza, University of Cambridge, UK Wang, Jiangping, Xi'an Shiyou University, China
Molina Flores, Esteban, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Wang, Kedong, Beihang University, China
Mexico Wang, Liang, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA
Moradi, Majid, University of Kerman, Iran Wang, Mi, University of Leeds, UK
Morello, Rosario, University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria, Italy Wang, Shinn-Fwu, Ching Yun University, Taiwan
Mounir, Ben Ali, University of Sousse, Tunisia Wang, Wei-Chih, University of Washington, USA
Mulla, Imtiaz Sirajuddin, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India Wang, Wensheng, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Neelamegam, Periasamy, Sastra Deemed University, India Watson, Steven, Center for NanoSpace Technologies Inc., USA
Neshkova, Milka, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Weiping, Yan, Dalian University of Technology, China
Oberhammer, Joachim, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Wells, Stephen, Southern Company Services, USA
Ould Lahoucine, Cherif, University of Guelma, Algeria Wolkenberg, Andrzej, Institute of Electron Technology, Poland
Pamidighanta, Sayanu, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), India Woods, R. Clive, Louisiana State University, USA
Pan, Jisheng, Institute of Materials Research & Engineering, Singapore Wu, DerHo, National Pingtung Univ. of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Park, Joon-Shik, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Korea South Wu, Zhaoyang, Hunan University, China
Penza, Michele, ENEA C.R., Italy Xiu Tao, Ge, Chuzhou University, China
Pereira, Jose Miguel, Instituto Politecnico de Setebal, Portugal Xu, Lisheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Petsev, Dimiter, University of New Mexico, USA Xu, Tao, University of California, Irvine, USA
Pogacnik, Lea, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Yang, Dongfang, National Research Council, Canada
Post, Michael, National Research Council, Canada Yang, Wuqiang, The University of Manchester, UK
Prance, Robert, University of Sussex, UK Yang, Xiaoling, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Prasad, Ambika, Gulbarga University, India Yaping Dan, Harvard University, USA
Prateepasen, Asa, Kingmoungut's University of Technology, Thailand Ymeti, Aurel, University of Twente, Netherland
Pullini, Daniele, Centro Ricerche FIAT, Italy Yong Zhao, Northeastern University, China
Pumera, Martin, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan Yu, Haihu, Wuhan University of Technology, China
Radhakrishnan, S. National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India Yuan, Yong, Massey University, New Zealand
Rajanna, K., Indian Institute of Science, India Yufera Garcia, Alberto, Seville University, Spain
Ramadan, Qasem, Institute of Microelectronics, Singapore Zakaria, Zulkarnay, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia
Rao, Basuthkar, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, India Zagnoni, Michele, University of Southampton, UK
Raoof, Kosai, Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, France Zamani, Cyrus, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Reig, Candid, University of Valencia, Spain Zeni, Luigi, Second University of Naples, Italy
Restivo, Maria Teresa, University of Porto, Portugal Zhang, Minglong, Shanghai University, China
Robert, Michel, University Henri Poincare, France Zhang, Qintao, University of California at Berkeley, USA
Rezazadeh, Ghader, Urmia University, Iran Zhang, Weiping, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Royo, Santiago, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain Zhang, Wenming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Rodriguez, Angel, Universidad Politecnica de Cataluna, Spain Zhang, Xueji, World Precision Instruments, Inc., USA
Rothberg, Steve, Loughborough University, UK Zhong, Haoxiang, Henan Normal University, China
Sadana, Ajit, University of Mississippi, USA Zhu, Qing, Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc., USA
Sadeghian Marnani, Hamed, TU Delft, The Netherlands Zorzano, Luis, Universidad de La Rioja, Spain
Sandacci, Serghei, Sensor Technology Ltd., UK Zourob, Mohammed, University of Cambridge, UK
Sensors & Transducers Journal (ISSN 1726-5479) is a peer review international journal published monthly online by International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA).
Available in electronic and on CD. Copyright © 2009 by International Frequency Sensor Association. All rights reserved.
 Sensors & Transducers Journal

Contents
Volume 114 www.sensorsportal.com ISSN 1726-5479
Issue 3
March 2010

Editorial

Sensors: Smart vs. Intelligent

Sergey Y. Yurish……………………………………………………………………………………………… I

Research Articles

Novel Sensors for Food Inspections

Mohd. Syaifudin Bin Abdul Rahman, Subhas C. Mukhopadhyay and Pak Lam Yu .......................... 1

A Neural Network Approach to Fluid Level Measurement in Dynamic Environments Using

a Single Capacitive Sensor
Edin Terzic, Romesh Nagarajah, Muhammad Alamgir ...................................................................... 41

Novel Orthogonal Signal Based Decomposition of Digital Signals: Application

to Sensor Fusion
Abdul Faheem Mohed, Garimella Rama Murthy and Ram Bilas Pachori .......................................... 56

A Multiobjective Fuzzy Inference System based Deployment Strategy

for a Distributed Mobile Sensor Network
Amol P. Bhondekar, Gagan Jindal, T. Ramakrishna Reddy, C. Ghanshyam, Ashavani Kumar,
Pawan Kapur and M. L. Singla ........................................................................................................... 66

A Low Cost and High Speed Electrical Capacitance Tomography System Design
Ruzairi Abdul Rahim, Zhen Cong Tee, Mohd Hafiz Fazalul Rahiman, Jayasuman Pusppanathan. . 83

Fiber Optic Long Period Grating Based Sensor for Coconut Oil Adulteration Detection
T. M. Libish, J. Linesh, P. Biswas, S. Bandyopadhyay, K. Dasgupta and P. Radhakrishnan ........... 102

Type Identification of Unknown Thermocouple Using Principle Component Analysis

Palash Kundu and Gautam Sarkar..................................................................................................... 112

A Dynamic Micro Force Sensing Probe Based on PVDF

Qiangxian Huang, Kang Ni, Nan Shi, Maosheng Hou, Xiaolong Wang ............................................. 122

LED-Based Colour Sensing System

Ibrahim Al-Bahadly and Rashid Berndt .............................................................................................. 132

Design and Development of Black Box for Analyzing Accidents in Indian Railways
Alka Dubey and Ashish Verma........................................................................................................... 151

Use of the Maximum Torque Sensor to Reduce the Starting Current in the Induction Motor
Muchlas and Hariyadi Soetedjo.......................................................................................................... 161

Implementation of FPGA based PID Controller for DC Motor Speed Control System
Savita Sonoli, Nagabhushan Raju Konduru ....................................................................................... 170
 ZigBee Radio with External Low-Noise Amplifier
Allan Huynh, Jingcheng Zhang, Qin-Zhong Ye and Shaofang Gong ................................................ 184

Authors are encouraged to submit article in MS Word (doc) and Acrobat (pdf) formats by e-mail: editor@sensorsportal.com
Please visit journal’s webpage with preparation instructions: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/Submition.htm

International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA).

 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Sensors & Transducers

ISSN 1726-5479
© 2010 by IFSA
http://www.sensorsportal.com

LED-Based Colour Sensing System

Ibrahim AL-BAHADLY and Rashid BERNDT
School of Engineering and Advanced Technology,
Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
E-mail: i.h.albahadly@massey.ac.nz

Received: 16 February 2010 /Accepted: 22 March 2010 /Published: 29 March 2010

Abstract: This paper presents a new colour sensing system for measuring the colour of car paint
accurately enough to reproduce the paint proportions to cover up scratches or wear on a car. The aim is
to repaint a car’s damaged area at a fraction of the cost of repainting the whole car. The proposed
colour sensing system is based on Light Emitting Diode (LED). A prototype for the system has been
designed, built, and tested.

During this work light was researched as well as lighting sources, how light travels, how light reflects
and refracts, ways light can be quantized, the human eye, why cameras look accurate, lighting
conditions and their effects, and the emergence of colour. Copyright © 2010 IFSA.

Keywords: Colour sensing, Light Emitting Diode (LED), Paint matching

1. Introduction
As paint ages it changes colour because of weather, oxidation and corrosion. When a building gets
renovated or tagged by spray painters it is very hard to paint over the graffiti area and match the colour
exactly. The paint from the original tin that is the same paint that went onto the wall in the first place is
no longer the same colour as the wall after some time. Also when a car gets scratched, the paint that is
the “right” colour is often no longer the same, because of weathering and because of slight differences
in the paint proportions from the standard colour mix.

This difference in colour means that there will always be a mark showing where the scratch was or
where the graffiti was unless the entire surface is repainted which is expensive and time consuming.
Alternatives using chemicals which deform the current paint to cover up scratches are available in the

132
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

automotive industry, but are limited in their application to minor scratches.

The product concept is a system which identifies the exact quantities of paint required to match the
painted colour and produce this paint for the reapplication of paint that is perfectly matched to the
surface. Such a product would make the repainting and matching of colours much less expensive.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Light

Light is important to all known life. Light is the key source of energy that feeds all life on Earth and
we use it to get information about our surroundings and what we are doing.

The nature and properties of light have been investigated since ancient times. Following is a brief
explanation of what light is, sources of light, how light travels and how light relates to colour.

Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths between about 400 nm to about 780 nm.
The colour of light and whether it is visible depends on the wavelength [10, 12]. Below in Fig. 1 is a
diagram showing the relationship between the wavelength and colour of light [20]. Table 1 shows the
wavelengths as they relate to colours.

Fig. 1. The visible light spectrum, image from www.dnr.sc.gov.

Table 1. Wavelengths as they relate to colours.

Colour  Wavelength (nm) 
Violet  450 and down 
Blue  450‐480 
Blue Green  480‐510 
Green  510‐550 
Yellow  570‐590 
Orange  590‐630 
Red  630 and up 

133
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Light is a type of “energy” and is thought of as being carried by photons which are elementary
particles, from a basic point of view responsible for the electromagnetic phenomenon. These photons
are the transporters of all rays of radiation. The transfer of energy for one photon is described in the
equation below [10]:

E = hc/λ, (1)

E = energy transfer of one photon;

h = Planck’s constant = 6.626 x 10-34 J.s ;
c = 299,792,458 m/s;
λ = wavelength of the radiation.
The energy in a wave is proportional to the intensity, frequency and speed of the light.
Frequency = 1/Time

F = 1/T (2)

Frequency x Wavelength = Speed of Light in the medium

Fλ=c (3)

The energy can be measured with the use of Cameras, spectrometers, and other commercially available
sensors. Sensors usually have different sensitivities to the different wavelengths of light which are
described in their datasheets.

2.2. The Appearance of Colour

When we are observing a street at day time all the light falling on the street comes from the sun, either
directly (on a clear day), diffusely (through clouds), or after scattering through particles in the
atmosphere. Sunlight is considered as a white light source and is a mixture of all the colours in the
spectrum. Only the colours in the light source (sun light) can then be revealed by the objects on the
street. Plants have a dye called chlorophyll which has the property of absorbing reddish, yellowish and
bluish light, and transmitting greenish light. Because of this the colour of the plants appears to be
“green”. If we observe the street again at night time, with only sodium street lights to light the street,
the same plants would appear to be different colours because the sodium lights emit differently to the
sun [11].

The colour of an object is governed by the colours that are not absorbed (the reflectance curve) and the
lighting conditions [11]. If the colour of an object is not present in the light source, it will not appear
[13].

White light is light that contains approximately equal proportions of all colours in the visible spectrum
[1, 2]. Real white light sources cannot achieve this [2].

As a result of this broad spectrum making up white light and the nature of refractive indexes (the angle
of refraction changes for different wavelengths), if white light is put through a prism the light will split
up revealing all the colours present as shown in Fig. 2 [15, 19].

134
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Fig. 2. White light source entering the prism, colours separating out because
of refractive angles of the different wavelengths.

In general it is important for white light sources to be similar to sun light. Later in the document
different sources of white light will be explored as well as their spectral output and principle of
operation.

2.3. Reflection

When a light ray traveling in one medium reaches a boundary to another medium some of the light is
reflected as shown in Fig. 3 [18].

Fig. 3. Light reflection from a mirror.

The reflected angle is the same as the incident angle, that is light reflects away from the object at the
same angle which it came on. This relationship is called the law of reflection [18].

If the surface is smooth the incident rays continue to travel in parallel with each other, this is known as
secular reflection. If the surface is not smooth the incident rays travel in all directions on the incident
side of the surface, this is known as diffuse reflection [18].

An object will reflect source lighting differently depending on the directivity of the source of
illumination. The figure below shows two possible results for a smooth reflective surface.

135
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

The top of Fig. 4 shows a situation with a strongly directional light source (e.g. an LED) at A shining
at the object. The source light beam is reflected to C and the colours that are not absorbed by the object
are reflected in all other directions [11]. The lower position of Fig. 4 shows a diffuse light source
shining onto the object. The source light shines on from all angles and is reflected away at all angles as
well. This means looking at the objects colour is hard because from any position there will be a
mixture of reflected source light and the colour of the object itself [11].

Fig. 4. Top, directional lighting. Bottom, diffuse lighting.

2.4. Refraction

Light does not travel in a straight line through two medium, it changes direction at the boundary.
When a light ray traveling in a medium continues on into a second medium it bends at the boundary
between the two. The angle that light continues on is known as the angle of refraction as shown in
Fig. 5 [18].

Fig. 5. Shows the refraction angle of light.

136
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

The angle of refraction is a function of the two mediums at the boundary [18] as follows:

n1 sin(θ1 ) = n2 sin(θ 2 ) (4)

λo
n= , (5)
λn

λ0 = wavelength of light in vacuum, λn = wavelength of light in the medium;

n1 = index of refraction for first medium, n2 = index of refraction for second medium;
θ1 = angle of incidence, θ 2 = angle of refraction;
It can be seen that the index of refraction is dependent on the wavelength of light. For this reason
colours appear to spread out of the prism.

3. Measuring and Quantizing Light and Colour

Light is normally measured with the three following characteristics [10]:
• Frequency/Wavelength;
• Intensity/Brightness;
• Polarization/Direction of wave oscillations.

Normal light oscillates in all directions, when light is polarized it oscillates on only one plane.
Polarized light can be seen to rotate along its axis of polarization when traveling along the same path
as a magnetic field [12], this is called the Faraday Effect. When the colour of an object is measured it
is often shown using a spectral reflection curve, showing the percentage reflected light intensity to
incident light against the wavelengths.

The human eye has got receptors to sense light and dark as well as red, green and blue. The eyes
sensors are made up of cones (responsible for sensing colour) and rods (responsible for sensing black
and white). The eye has far more black and white sensors than colour sensors which is why our vision
changes so much at night [11].

There are different cone receptors for red, green and blue. The sensitivities of the cones change
between people and the different cones have different sensitivities. Fig. 6 is a normalized plot of the
sensitivity of the rods and cones (determined by indirect methods) [11].

Fig. 6. Normalized wavelengths the rods and cones of the eye are sensitive to. These vary between people.
137
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

It is not clearly understood how the brain interprets information from the eye but it is thought of as
interpreting the differences in colour. Factors which influence our experience of colour are the colour
of the object itself (some colours are easier to see than others), the intensity of the light coming from
the object (the more intense the light source is the more it stimulates our sensors and the more brilliant
the colour appears, this is not as important for a camera because they can alter their shutter speed), and
the size of the object (a larger object will influence our vision more). The colour we observe also
changes as a result of the background colour (if you observe white next to red the white will take on
some of the red) and the light source. It is also related to the relative brightness of the object in
comparison to the surrounding environment. The lightness of an object is affected by the angle of the
surface to the sensor and light source. Because of variations in almost everything in terms of lighting
conditions, lighting intensity, reflection angles, lighting directionality, surrounding conditions and the
slow response of the eye our perception of what a colour “is” is very broad. Take grass on a field for
example, when the sun shines onto the grass it is a brilliant, sometimes golden green. The same patch
of grass on a cloudy overcast day looks much darker, to the extent of being a different colour. This
massive unconsciously accepted variation of colours allows us to accept that the colours in a
photograph are accurate. Perhaps if the photograph were viewed in the exact same lighting conditions
as when it had been taken the colours would be the same. There are also instances where the colour is
very inaccurate. For example, human skin colour is a between a pale white to black colour, when
photographed white skin comes out with a slight tan and dark skin comes out lighter [11].

4. Light Sources
Light sources were researched to choose the ideal light sources for implementing white light for the
lighting conditions of the project. When the project developed it was decided to use a range of LED’s
to generate a range of different lighting conditions. This section supports the move away from using
cameras for the project.

Following is a summary of different light sources.

4.1. Incandescent Light Bulbs

Incandescent lamps generate light by putting current through a wire filament until the wire is white
hot. The power distribution of the spectrum rises towards the red end of the spectrum [6].

4.2. Halogen Light Bulbs

Halogen Lamps are high pressure incandescent lamps which contain halogen gases such as iodine and
bromine. This allows the filament to work at higher temperatures and efficiencies without burning. The
filament consists of a tungsten filament inside a quartz envelope [5], [8].

When the light is turned on the high temperature of the filament causes the tungsten atoms to
evaporate and combine with the halogen gas. These particles are deposited back onto the surface of the
filament helping it last longer.

4.3. Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s)

Light emitting diodes (LED) are PN junction devices that give off light when forwards biased. LED’s
are solid state, requiring little power and generating little heat. They have long operating lifetimes as
they do not require the deterioration of some material to generate light [7].
138
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

LED’s can be edge emitting (light emanates from heterogeneous layers, greater radiance), surface
emitting (emits light perpendicular to active region) and super luminescent (stable amplification) [7].

LED’s come in a range of colours from ultraviolet to infrared. They usually emit light on a narrow
bandwidth, however blue LED’s have a wider bandwidth at the moment. They also come in “white”
(RS Components), and white can be achieved by combining several LED’s of different colours [10].

4.4. Fluorescent Light Bulbs

Florescent lamps generate light by discharging electricity through a low pressure mercury vapour. The
electricity makes UV light which causes the vapour to fluoresce. They generally come in long tubes.
Phosphor can be used to coat the inside of the of the glass tube to transform the UV light into visible
light [3].

Lighting quality is measured by the colour rendering index, which goes from 0-100 (100 being the
closest to natural light) [4].

Smaller fluorescent lights draw less than 15 W, last less than 6000 hours and are at the smallest 2.5 cm
long [9].

4.5. Sun Light

Natural sun light varies throughout the day. At sun rise sunlight has a lot of red and orange in it, during
the day it is a lot more even in spectral distribution. Fig. 7 shows the spectral output of common
sources of light.

Fig. 7. Shows the spectral output of common sources of light.

5. Colour Acquisition Technology

5.1. Beam Splitters

Beam splitters are made of two prisms put together as a square with multilayer coatings in-between.
This is used to split the light into its separate wavelengths so that more information can be gathered on
it [12].
139
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

5.2. Cameras

Today digital cameras are very common. Digital cameras use a charge couple device (CCD) to work
out the colour data. Most of the technology in a camera is based on getting a clear image or video with
a good signal to noise ratio and very little distortions from the lenses. Digital cameras and colour
reproduction take advantage of the human eye being sensitive to a wide range of wavelengths for
colour reproduction. Digital cameras only have three different colour sensors, broadly speaking, red,
green, and blue as shown in Fig. 8 [17].

Fig. 8. Spectral sensitivity of the CCD in a Sony digital camera.

5.3. Spectrometers

An instrument for the physical analysis of colour. Provides a wavelength by wavelength analysis of the
reflectance and/or transmitting properties of object.

Spectrometers usually come with a range of lighting conditions. In principle a spectrometer uses a
prism, grating or interference filter to split the reflected light into its constituent parts and them makes
a measurement of these parts [21].

Spectral reflectance curves are usually measured with a spectrometer.

5.4. Colorimeter

Colorimeters are similar to spectrometers, except they sense light in a similar way to the human eye
(only three sensors, red, green, and blue). Colorimeters are made out of much simpler sensors and data
processing than a spectrometer and are much more rugged.

5.5. LED Based Light Acquisition

Modern LEDs emit light on very narrow bandwidths with a half wavelength of only 24 nm and are
available for almost the whole visible spectrum.

140
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

By blocking all other light sources and using a simple light detection sensor LEDs can be used as a
low resolution spectrometer.

Such Instruments have existed commercially for the last 10 years and are available in very specialized
forms (e.g. water testing, chemical testing) [22].

6. Proposed System
The broader outline of the project was to develop a process which could identify the paint quantities in
a colour and then reproduce the colour as a paint mixture.

Such a system would have a colour acquisition stage (where information about the colour was
gathered), an interpolation stage (where the colours present were compared with known colours and a
paint mix was generated) and a mixing stage (where a robot mixes that paint in the right proportions or
the paint is mixed at the store).

The system which was proposed for this project was the colour acquisition stage, where information
about the colour was gathered. The aim of the project was to develop a device which could sense the
colour of an object for the reproduction of that colour in car paint so that the human eye could not tell
the difference.

This involved accurately sensing the colour, eliminating sources of noise and interference, and a
human interface.

The key requirements identified for the product were:

• The instrument must produce repeatable colour measurements.
• The colour measurements must be free of distortions in colour or brightness due to curvature or
any other source.
• The colour measurements must be independent of environmental conditions.
• The product must be easy to use.
o Simple user interface
o Little effort to use
o Easy to download colour measurements from the system
• The instrument should be able to run without a power cord and be portable.
• An effort should be made to use long lasting components.
• The prototype should be able to handle -4 to 32 deg C (reasonable temperature limits in New
Zealand).
• An effort to use modern technologies should be made.

Since only a prototype system was developed the operating conditions were not of great importance,
however the conditions were identified as a garage environment with possibly brutal handling.
Temperature ranges between -4 °C and 32 °C.

Sources of interference identified included, environmental lighting conditions, noise from reflections,
electronic noise from PCB design, and noise from heat dissipation and temperature. Fig. 9 is a
summary of the system:

141
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Fig. 9. Summary of system.

7. System Design
An initial functional system design was developed to get a clearer idea of what was required for the
project. As the research for the project progressed so did the design of the instrument. It became clear
that a digital camera would not provide enough information about the colour being measured and
different ways of finding the colour were explored (these included, spectrometer, light dependent
resister and photodiode techniques).

Initially a digital camera was going to be mounted somehow inside a housing that blocked out all
external light and had a controlled internal light source. This approach showed the lack of
understanding of light and the sensors being used in the camera.

A digital camera can only sense three colours (red, green and blue). An individual sensor on a digital
camera is responsive to a wide range of wavelengths (colours) and only gives one output for all these
colours put together. Because a wide range of colours stimulate each sensor different proportions of
each of these colours can produce the same output.

Another problem arises with using a digital camera, which light source should be used? All
commercially available light sources have much different colour outputs to sun light, white lights are
by no means white, they are different mixtures of many colour that balance out on our eyes to appear
white. The light source used affects the light that is available to be reflected by the object. If a filament
bulb is used then there will be a lot more red available to be reflected by the object, whereas if a white
LED is used there will be a lot more blue available to be reflected by the object. For this reason objects
appear a different colour under different lighting conditions.

To make using a camera for the reproduction of car paint work, we would have to use light sources
that mimic all the lighting conditions that the car could possibly appear under or face having a
mismatch. This would also require information about all the different paints under all the different
light sources.

Noticing that LED’s emit light on a very narrow bandwidth compared to the eye (around 24nm band),
and the range of LEDs available today, LEDs could be used to emit short bandwidths of light over the
entire visible spectrum. Sensors are also available which detect if light is present or not, these sensors
include light dependent resistors (LDRs) and photodiodes.

142
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Unfortunately light detecting sensors do not have linear sensitivities to the different wavelengths,
typically being far more sensitive to infrared light than blue light.

Using LEDs as part of colour sensing equipment has been done for the last 10 years. These methods
typically include measuring the intensity of light that is reflected from an object. Attempts have been
made to commercialize products like this but have only taken place on small local scales.

By using LEDs that overlap each other sufficiently in the spectrum more information can be gathered
about the reflection of light. If three LEDs have overlapping wavelengths and the information from
one end is high and the information from the middle one is low, more light is being reflected in the
high one where its emission wavelengths do not overlap with the middle LED.

Two types of light detection sensors were tried out for the light detection, light dependent resistors and
photodiodes. Light dependent resistors were found to be very sensitive to changes in lighting, and
provided an adequate solution to light detection for the project. Photodiodes were found to be too
directional to be useful for this project. Normal photodiodes with a half angle of 10° (can sense light
that is at an angle of about 20°) were found to be inappropriate for this application, even photodiodes
with a half angle of 40° had to be carefully lined up for them to work. Both light dependent resistors
and wide angle photodiodes were implemented in the prototype.

The spectral output of LEDs depends on the current going through them, by varying the current the
peak wavelength of the LED varies also. For this reason pulse width modulation was used to control
the LEDs brightness [14].

The aim of the project was to get colour information from car paint. Car paint is generally shiny and
highly reflective. For this reason the LEDs were mounted at 45° (see Fig. 10) to normal on the sensor,
the idea being that the highly directional LED source light that is reflected would then be directed
away from the sensors, allowing only light that was not absorbed from the object to reflect into the
light detectors.

Fig. 10. Having the LEDs angled at 45 degrees directs source reflection away
from the sensors allowing only unabsorbed light to reach the sensors.

It was important for the sensors measuring the reflection to be isolated from direct light from the
source LEDs. This was achieved be having a barrier cylinder around the sensors, blocking the direct
light from the LEDs. The set up is shown in Fig. 11 below.

143
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Fig. 11. By having a cylinder around the reflection sensors direct lighting
from the LEDs can be eliminated.

To reduce further reflections of light within the instrument, everything within the instrument was
painted with a matt black finish.

Further improvements to reduce the internal reflections would have been to mount the reflection
sensors on a slight angle, however this was not seen to be practical because this would have impaired
the light reaching the sensors.

Addressing the issue of curvature of the painted surface it must be recognized that a curved surface
will not cause a change in wavelength of light reflecting from it. It will affect the path the light travels
on. The angle of the LEDs is sufficient to stop any source reflection into the reflection sensors, and the
surface area of paint combined with the wide angle aperture of the light dependent resistors and the
photodiodes is enough to compensate for any change in directionality of the unabsorbed light that
should be entering the reflection sensors. However, due to the need to block out environmental light,
the instrument should be mounted on a mostly flat surface, eliminating any effects of curvature.

8. Implementation

8.1. Hardware

Initial Design for the hardware included a single battery with a boost converter to a power regulator for
the power supply and transistors grounding the LEDs which had their current controlled by a simple
V = IR circuit.

The many flaws to the initial design included the boost converter (1 V was too low to use any normal
diodes), and the battery life (it draws a lot of power from one battery that only supplies 1 V to get 5 V).
This was fixed by including four 1.2 V rechargeable batteries.

The most critical part of the project was the lighting. Using a simple ohms law approach to controlling
the current through the LEDs was not enough, as the battery voltage can vary from 4 V to 5.3 V
(changing the current in this approach by more than 60%) and because a cheap switch mode voltage
regulator does not provide a very smooth output. All these causes of variation introduce potential for
variation in the current going through the LEDs, which must be driven at their recommended currents
to be spectrally accurate. Several circuits were designed and finally an op-amp circuit was used as a
current source with a low voltage reference. No longer relying on a regulated power supply the
144
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

regulator could be completely eliminated from the design. Fig. 12 shows LED initial current control
circuit. While Fig. 13 shows the final set up for the LED control circuit.

Fig. 12. LED current control. LED is switched on and off by turning the microcontroller pin off and on.
Note: LED current depends heavily on the voltage of VCC
as the LED voltage could be as much as 3.5 V.

Fig. 13. Final current control set up. Resistor R varied between LEDs to get the correct current.
LEDs no longer depend on the source voltage.

The other important area of the hardware was the signal amplification and conditioning.

The LEDs being pulse width modulated to control the light intensity had no negative effect on the light
dependent resistors (which had a very slow response time), however the PWM signal appeared on the
photodiode output (photodiodes have a very fast response time, in the order of nanoseconds). For this
reason a low pass filter was used to filter the photodiode signal [14, 16].

The amplifiers were set up to have a linear gain and be within the 3.3V range of the microcontrollers
internal regulator as shown in Fig. 14. Fig. 15 shows the operating range of the light dependent resistor
measuring the luminous intensity of the source LED.

145
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

⎛ LDR ⎞
V = 0.2V ∗ ⎜1 + ⎟ (5)
⎝ R ⎠

LDR = Light Dependent Resistor;

R = Reference Voltage Resistor;
0.2V = Reference Voltage.

Fig. 14. Op-Amp amplification of LDR signal.

Fig. 15. Shows the operating range of the light dependent resistor measuring
the luminous intensity of the source LED.

A simple current to voltage circuit was used to amplify the signal from the photodiodes.

An effort was made to protect the voltage signals from the PWM signals driving the LEDs. This was
achieved by separating them by arraigning them to be apart on the physical PCB and operating the
PWM at a very high frequency and the sensor signals at nearly DC. Fig. 16 is a photo of the hardware
implemented during the project.

146
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Fig. 16. Photo of Hardware implemented in the project.

Other areas of the hardware design included IC decoupling, power decoupling, programming interface,
USB interface, and external interrupts.

8.2. Information Interpretation Application

A Matlab M file was written to decode the information and present it as a reflectance curve. Fig. 17 is
the algorithm summarized into a flowchart.

Fig. 17. Matlab M file for getting meaningful data from the colour instrument.

147
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

9. Testing
A reflectance curve for a test piece of paint similar to car paint was gathered for comparison. A high
quality spectrometer was used to get a reference spectral reflection. Fig. 18 is the reflectance curve of
the test piece.

Fig. 18. Spectral reflectance curve for test piece.

During the initial testing only the luminous intensity was measured. Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 are the results
from averaged measurements.

Fig. 19. Average Results from measurement of black test piece.

148
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

Fig. 20. Average results from measurement of green test piece.

Fig. 20 above shows that there was stimulation on the green end of the spectrum when the green test
piece was tested. While Fig. 19 shows that the instrument was insensitive to a black test piece.

The testing shows that the principle of using LEDs worked, however more testing needs to be done for
a wider range of colours and the prototype needs to be further developed to eliminate noise because of
the weak signals.

5. Conclusions
The paper has presented a colour sensing system based on LED’s. The aim of the system is to
reproduce a cars paint to repaint a car’s damaged area at a fraction of the cost of repainting the whole
car. This system is a cheap alternative to repainting a whole car. The prototype was shown to be
sensitive to colour however further calibration and development is required.

In this paper light was researched as well as lighting sources, how light travels, how light reflects and
refracts, ways light can be quantized, the human eye, why cameras look accurate, lighting conditions
and their effects, and the emergence of colour.

References
[1]. Chandra: X-Ray Observatory CXC Operated for NASA by SAD, 2008, Chandra, Resources, W-Z, 5 April
2009, http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/glossaryWXZ.html
[2]. Cooperative Print Solutions, Solutions for your success, Glossary of terms, 5 April 2009,
http://www.coopprint.com/glossary.htm
[3]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, Fluorescent Lamps Information on GLobalSpec,
viewed 17 April 2009, http://optical-components.globalspec.comlearnmore/optics_optical_
components/light_sources/fluorescent_lamps
[4]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, Fluorescent Lamps from Grainger Industrial
Supply, viewed 17 April 2009, http://optical-components.globalspec.com/SpecSearch/MatchingProducts
?Comp=2102&QID=13783555&VID=168903&showSort=true&SortOptions=idSchema_lamp_power%20
ASC%200
149
 Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 114, Issue 3, March 2010, pp. 132-150

[5]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, Halogen Lamps Information on GLobalSpec,
viewed 17 April 2009, http://optical-components.globalspec.com/LearnMore/Optics_Optical
_Components/Light_Sources/Halogen_Lamps
[6]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, Incandescent Lamps Information on GlobalSpec,
viewed 17 April 2009, http://optical-components.globalspec.com/LearnMore/Optics_Optical_
Components/Light_Sources/Incandescent_Lamps
[7]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, Light Emitting Diodes (LED) Information on
GLobalSpec, viewed 17 April 2009, http://optical-components.globalspec.com/learnmore/optics_optical
_components/light_sources/light_emitting_diodes
[8]. GLOBALSPEC, The Engineering Search Engine, 2009, PAR36 Halogen Light Bulbs, viewed 17 April
2009, http://www.buylighting.com/PAR36-Halogen-s/94.html
[9]. GRAINGER, 2009, Lighting > Lamps > Compact Fluorescent lamps > Cold Cathode Lamp, 3 Watt, 25K
Hr, A Shape: Grainger Industrial Supply, viewed 17 April 2009, http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/
1LEH7?cm_mmc=GS:Product-_-Lighting-_-Lamps-_-1LEH7
[10].Held G., Introduction to Light Emitting Diode Technology and Applications, CRC Press, FL, USA, 2009.
[11].Hunt R. W. G, The Reproduction of Colour (Sixth Edition), John Wiley & Sons Ltd, West Sussex, England,
2004.
[12].Kenyon I. R., The Light Fantastic: A Modern Introduction to Classical and Quantum Optics, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, UK, 2008.
[13].Khare, P., Swarup, A, Engineering Physics, Fundamentals & Modern Applications, Infinity Science Press
LLC, Hingham, Massachusetts, New Delhi, India, 2007.
[14].Pasi M., Pasi O., On spectral and thermal behaviors of AlGaInP light-emitting diodes under pulse-width
modulation, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 91, Issue 18, 2007, p. 181121.
[15].Prism, hegel.net, 4th October 2009, http://www.hegel.net/en/gif/prism-and-refraction-of-light-into-rainbow-
2-AJHD.jpg
[16].RP Photonics, 2008, Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology-white light sources, superluminescent
diode, supercontinuum, 5 April 2009, http://www.rp-photonics.com/white_light_sources.html
[17].Scheirer W. J., Kirkbride S. R., Boult T. E., Inexpensive Spectrometer Color camera Technology.
Application of Computer Vision, WACV, 2008, pp 1-8.
[18].Serway A. R., Jewett J. W., Physics for Scientists and Engineers (6th Edition), Thomson Learning, CA,
USA, 2004.
[19].Molecular Expressions, Optical Microscopy Primer. Sources of Visible Light, 18th October 2009,
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/lightsourcesintro.html
[20].Spectrum Image, South Carolina Department of natural resources, 4th October 2009,
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/ael/personals/pjpb/lecture/spectrum.gif
[21].Technical Services Department, Application Notes, Colorimeter Versus Spectrometers, Vol. 6, No 5, 2008,
Hunter Associates Laboratory, Virginia, USA.
[22].Vrhel M. J., An LED based spectromphotometric instrument, Color Imaging: Device-Independent Color,
Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 3648, 1999, pp. 226-236.

___________________

2010 Copyright ©, International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA). All rights reserved.
(http://www.sensorsportal.com)

150
 Sensors & Transducers Journal

Guide for Contributors

Aims and Scope

Sensors & Transducers Journal (ISSN 1726-5479) provides an advanced forum for the science and technology
of physical, chemical sensors and biosensors. It publishes state-of-the-art reviews, regular research and
application specific papers, short notes, letters to Editor and sensors related books reviews as well as
academic, practical and commercial information of interest to its readership. Because it is an open access, peer
review international journal, papers rapidly published in Sensors & Transducers Journal will receive a very high
publicity. The journal is published monthly as twelve issues per annual by International Frequency Association
(IFSA). In additional, some special sponsored and conference issues published annually. Sensors &
Transducers Journal is indexed and abstracted very quickly by Chemical Abstracts, IndexCopernicus Journals
Master List, Open J-Gate, Google Scholar, etc.

Topics Covered

Contributions are invited on all aspects of research, development and application of the science and technology
of sensors, transducers and sensor instrumentations. Topics include, but are not restricted to:

• Physical, chemical and biosensors;

• Digital, frequency, period, duty-cycle, time interval, PWM, pulse number output sensors and transducers;
• Theory, principles, effects, design, standardization and modeling;
• Smart sensors and systems;
• Sensor instrumentation;
• Virtual instruments;
• Sensors interfaces, buses and networks;
• Signal processing;
• Frequency (period, duty-cycle)-to-digital converters, ADC;
• Technologies and materials;
• Nanosensors;
• Microsystems;
• Applications.

Submission of papers

Articles should be written in English. Authors are invited to submit by e-mail editor@sensorsportal.com 8-14
pages article (including abstract, illustrations (color or grayscale), photos and references) in both: MS Word
(doc) and Acrobat (pdf) formats. Detailed preparation instructions, paper example and template of manuscript
are available from the journal’s webpage: http://www.sensorsportal.com/HTML/DIGEST/Submition.htm Authors
must follow the instructions strictly when submitting their manuscripts.

Advertising Information

Advertising orders and enquires may be sent to sales@sensorsportal.com Please download also our media kit:
http://www.sensorsportal.com/DOWNLOADS/Media_Kit_2009.pdf