Detecting wet surfaces using near infrared lighting.

Area of Science:

• Optoelectronics and Sensor Technology
• Surface Science and Engineering

Background:

• Accurate detection of wet surfaces is critical in various industrial and environmental monitoring applications.
• Existing methods may lack robustness or applicability across diverse surface types.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate a novel system for reliable wet surface detection.
• To utilize the optical properties of water in the near-infrared spectrum for detection.

Main Methods:

• Employing near-infrared (NIR) LED illumination.
• Utilizing a standard CCD camera for image acquisition.
• Exploiting the sharp decrease in light transmission through water above 920 nm.

Main Results:

• The system successfully detects water films on various impermeable, non-hydrophilic, and reflective surfaces (reflectivity > 0.4).
• The method demonstrates robustness by identifying the specific spectral transition characteristic of water.

Conclusions:

• The proposed NIR-based system offers a robust and effective solution for detecting wet surfaces.
• This technology is suitable for applications requiring reliable wetness monitoring on suitable surface types.