Patent ID: 11957447
Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 21:
22. A system for monitoring stratified fluids comprising:
a laser diode that emits an un-collimated, un-processed raw point laser light beam,
a photo detector (PD) part comprising an active sensing area,
an analogue-to-digital conversion circuitry (DAQ Part),
a voltage regulator,
a power supply,
a handheld housing comprising one or more inlets and/or outlets to facilitate delivery of a stratified fluid into and/or through the housing and at least a portion of the laser diode, the PD part, the DAQ part, the voltage regulator, the power supply, or any combination thereof contained or enclosed therein, and
a computer not contained or enclosed in the housing that is in wireless connection with one or more parts in the housing;
wherein the laser diode and PD are aligned such that upon illumination the light is propagated through a stratified fluid between the irradiation part and PD and received on the active sensing area of the PD part to generate an electrical signal;
wherein changes in the pattern of light received on the active sensing area and electrical signal generated therefrom correspond with changes comprising the amplitude and/or frequency of motion of and/or in the stratified fluid;
wherein the electrical signal is received by the DAQ part that converts the electrical signal to a digital signal, and
wherein the computer processes the digital signal to determine the characteristics of the motion of one or more aerosols and/or particles or droplets in the stratified fluid by determining the deflection magnitude, the deflection direction, and/or the deflection frequency of the light; the size, sizes, or size range, density, and/or rate or speed of particles and/or droplets in the one or more aerosols; or any combination thereof using one or more algorithms, processes, and/or strategies based on the principles of Rayleigh scattering, scatter intensity distribution, or a combination thereof to process the digital signal, and generates an output indicating the detection of and/or distinguishing between, one or more aerosols and/or particles or droplets therein, of the stratified fluid.