MicroStrain's remote, structure-monitoring concept incorporates embedded sensors that can track stresses around the clock, automatically warning engineers before a hazard erupts. Microstrain engineers are working with University of Vermont researchers and students to test the concept on a bridge and with industry to test the concept in mining trucks.

Credit: MicroStrain, Inc.

This screen capture shows data transmitted from the first strain sensor-equipped human knee prosthesis, superimposed on some of the earliest steps taken by the implant recipient. MicroStrain provided wireless sensor expertise for the technology, which was developed in a collaboration that included Scripps Clinic in San Diego, Calif., DePuy Orthopaedics, and NK Biotechnical. The Scripps press release is available at: http://www.scripps.org/News.asp?ID=200

Credit: Scripps Clinic Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education

This model depicts the first-generation sensor-embedded knee prosthesis, dubbed the eKnee. Researchers from MicroStrain collaborated with partners at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, Calif., DePuy Orthopaedics, and NK Biotechnical to develop the technology.

Credit: Scripps Clinic Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education

The Liberty Bell in the Liberty Bell Center.

Credit: Photograph by Robin Miller, October 2003. Courtesy Independence National Historical Park.

A close-up view of the MicroStrain Nano-DVRT wireless sensors clamped to the Liberty Bell (the top and bottom sensors are the same design, but oriented perpendicular to each other). With even tiny motions of the crack--on the scale of millionths of a meter--the metal rod shifts its placement. The movement is detected by electrical coils, and that information is transmitted to a wireless receiver. The wires visible in this image are connecting the sensors to a wireless transmitter inside the Bell.

Credit: Curt Suplee, National Science Foundation

At the time of the move, NSF created one of the most comprehensive sites on the Web dedicated to the Liberty Bell, a showcase for the stories, images and videos that tell the history of the Bell, its journey to its new home and the impact of sensors on future technologies. "The Liberty Bell: Protecting an American Icon" is now live as a Special Report at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/liberty/.

Credit: NSF

Sensors have a range of potential uses in medicine.

Credit: MicroStrain, Inc.

Developed by Steve Arms and his colleagues at MicroStrain, G-LINK Wireless Accelerometer nodes monitored vibration and shock loads within the Liberty Bell during its relocation.

Credit: MiocroStrain, Inc.