Sensitive flow sensor: Hair sensor uncovers hidden signals
Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 10:30
in Physics & Chemistry
An “artificial cricket hair” used as a sensitive flow sensor has difficulty detecting weak, low-frequency signals – they tend to be drowned out by noise. But now, a bit of clever tinkering with the flexibility of the tiny hair’s supports has made it possible to boost the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 25. This in turn means that weak flows can now be measured.