A. Carullo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by A. Carullo

2017 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2017

Monitoring the health of the phonatory system plays a key role for the voice professionals, which... more Monitoring the health of the phonatory system plays a key role for the voice professionals, which are people who use the voice as a work tool. The voice quality can be assessed by means of parameters extracted from the vocal signal sensed by a contact sensor placed at the base of the neck, that is sensitive to the skin vibration related to the phonation. The use of a contact sensor is preferable to a microphone in air because of its lower sensitivity to the acoustical background noise. This paper focus on the development of a system for the characterization of the contact sensor that can be used for this purpose: an apparatus that can mimic the phonatory system and can act like a standard for testing the sensors. Such a system has been created and preliminary tested and characterized, in order to point out the similarity with the real phonatory system and to bring out any critical issue.

Energy Procedia, 2015

This work focuses on the evaluation of acoustical quality in high-school classrooms through in-fi... more This work focuses on the evaluation of acoustical quality in high-school classrooms through in-field measurements and selfreports. Two school buildings that differ in location and typology, were considered. In-field measurements included sound insulation, room acoustics and intelligibility indices in unoccupied and simulated occupied conditions. Teacher's vocal load was monitored over several working days through the Voice Care device and was related to the correspondent background noise and room acoustics. Teachers subjective perception investigated noise disturbance, vocal effort and status after each monitoring. The receiver operating curve was implemented to assess agreement between in-field measurements and self-reports for teachers. The association between objective parameters was assessed with linear regression analysis.

This paper describes an ultrasonic sensor that is able to measure the distance from the ground fr... more This paper describes an ultrasonic sensor that is able to measure the distance from the ground from selected points of a motor vehicle. The sensor is based on the measurement of the time of flight of an ultrasonic pulse, which is reflected by the ground. An uncertainty of 1 mm (1 σ) is obtained at rest or at low speeds; the sensor still works at speeds of up to 30 m/s although at reduced accuracy. Such a performance is obtained by employing a series of optimisations that allows the sensor to self-adapt to different conditions to give the best results. The sensor is composed of only low cost components, thus being apt for first car equipment in many cases

2013 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2013

An optical-fiber displacement measurement system devised for crack monitoring in cultural heritag... more An optical-fiber displacement measurement system devised for crack monitoring in cultural heritage preservation is presented and tested in a long term application. Low ownership and installation costs have been obtained using plastic optical fibers and an intensity-based transducer.

Ce travail presente deux dispositifs pour monitorer les parametres vocaux des professionnels de l... more Ce travail presente deux dispositifs pour monitorer les parametres vocaux des professionnels de la voix, soumis a un excessif charge vocal, c'est a dire l'extension temporelle de l'usage de la voix. Un nouveau prototype de analyseur portable cree par les Auteurs, appelee VOICE CARE, est compare avec le dispositif en commerce KAYPENTAX™. Les dispositifs peuvent etre utilises pour diagnostiquer des maladies du systeme phonatoire et pour prevenir un usage contre-indique de la voix VOICE CARE est un plancher fonde sur un dispositif portable, alimente avec des batteries, et un programme de traitement. L'estime du niveau de pression sonore et de la frequence fondamentale des vibrations induites par les mouvements des cordes vocales est effectuee par un microphone a condensateur electret. L'avantage le plus important de ce dispositif est son cout minimal, que permet de realiser des campagnes de mesurage avec nombreux sujets examines. Les autres avantages sont la garantie de la rapportabilite des parametres estimes, due a la definition des appropriees procedures de reglage, et la qualification de ces parametres en termes de incertitude de mesure

Measurement, 2014

This paper deals with the uncertainty analysis of parameters estimated during long-term monitorin... more This paper deals with the uncertainty analysis of parameters estimated during long-term monitoring of photovoltaic plants. A specifically developed data-acquisition system is briefly described, which has been conceived to be easily calibrated and, if necessary, adjusted to compensate for measuring-chain drifts, in order to assure the traceability of the estimated parameters. The measurement capabilities of the acquisition system are reported in terms of measured quantities and expected uncertainty. Results that refer to a three-year monitoring of ten photovoltaic plants based on different technologies and architectures are reported. The obtained uncertainty is suitable to distinguish the behavior of the different plants, thus allowing a preliminary comparison to be performed among technologies and architectures. Experimental results highlight an important difference between crystalline silicon devices and thin film technologies in regards to degradation.

IMTC/98 Conference Proceedings. IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference. Where Instrumentation is Going (Cat. No.98CH36222)

Abstract The description of industrial lyophilisation processes by means of theoretical models re... more Abstract The description of industrial lyophilisation processes by means of theoretical models requires a balance that is suitable for the very severe environmental conditions that take place in a freeze-dryer. A capacitive analytical balance that is able to operate in the ...

IMTC 2001. Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference. Rediscovering Measurement in the Age of Informatics (Cat. No.01CH 37188)

ABSTRACT The large use of measurement systems based on data-acquisition boards makes the traceabi... more ABSTRACT The large use of measurement systems based on data-acquisition boards makes the traceability-chain assurance a tricky problem, due to the difficulty in consistently calibrating such boards. In this paper the authors describe a travelling standard, which call be used for the calibration of many commercially available acquisition boards. By employing such a travelling standard, the calibration procedure can be remotely exercised by a calibration laboratory through the PC which hosts the board that has to be calibrated. In such a way the calibration results refer to environmental, software and hardware conditions that exactly match the board operating conditions. Furthermore, the board unavailability time is drastically reduced, with a consequent economic advantage for the board owner. The travelling standard embeds a micro-controller, which is responsible for the communication with the PC that hosts the board and for the board-stimulus generation, and a digital multimeter, which acts as a reference standard

2013 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2013

ABSTRACT A low-cost platform is proposed in this paper that has been conceived to monitor the voc... more ABSTRACT A low-cost platform is proposed in this paper that has been conceived to monitor the vocal activity of people that use the voice as a professional tool. Such a platform includes a wearable data-logger and a processing program that allows the vocal parameters to be extracted from the recorded signal. The data-logger is equipped with a contact microphone that is attached to the jugular notch of the person under monitoring, thus sensing the skin acceleration level due to the vibration of the vocal folds. The microphone output is conditioned through a custom circuitry and then sent to a cheap micro-controller-based board, which stores the raw samples onto a micro SDcard. The off-line processing provides an estimation of Sound Pressure Level (SPL), fundamental frequency (F0) and Time Dose (Dt), which are the parameters that seem most suitable for the identification of vocal disorders and the prevention of an improper use of the voice. For the estimated parameters, suitable calibration procedures are implemented and their effectiveness is shown through specifically conceived experimental tests. Experimental results are shown that refer to the calibration of the device and its normal use during monitoring interval of several hours. A comparison with a commercial device is also reported.

Proceedings of the 21st IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37510)

A new technique for disseminating impedance meusuremenr unitsfmm National Metrology Institutes to... more A new technique for disseminating impedance meusuremenr unitsfmm National Metrology Institutes to secondan. laboratories is pmposed in this paper Such a rechnique takes adLSantage of U client-server applicorion over the Internet arid emplqs LI co,,imerciolly available impedance calibrator with computer-interfaring capabilities. The calibrator. which is employed as a traveling standard, is sent to the secondary Iaborarory, where the traceability transfer pmcess toward a digital impedance meter is perjotmed. Such a pmress is remotely managed through the Internet by the Notional Metmlogy Institute. which acquires the measuremenr results and issues the calibration certrfcate of the impedance mete): The proposed solution allows the impedance dissemination pmcrss IO be largely simplified with respect to the trudirional calibmrion technique, so that rhe traceubilifymaintenanre cost a serondary laboratory I u s to susrain is drasticallv reduced. The architecture ofthe developed client-server application over the Internet is described in the paper and prelintinary results rhat are related IO the characterization ofthe emplowd trawling standard are reported.

2014 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA), 2014

The paper describes a new sensor for breath activity monitoring that, being based on optical fibe... more The paper describes a new sensor for breath activity monitoring that, being based on optical fibers, is specifically conceived for applications where the intrinsic safety and the immunity to strong electromagnetic fields are mandatory, such as during MRI. The sensor is based on a plastic optical fiber (POF) in contact with the patient chest and properly modified to be extremely sensitive to deformations induced by normal breathing activity. The paper presents the sensor development procedure, the fiber modification process based on a cold plasma facility, and experimental results carried out during rest and sleeping conditions.

2012 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Proceedings, 2012

ABSTRACT A prototype of portable vocal analyzer is proposed in this paper that is conceived to es... more ABSTRACT A prototype of portable vocal analyzer is proposed in this paper that is conceived to estimate the parameters that allow voice disorders to be identified. The basic architecture of the vocal analyzer is described, which is based on a sensor that is worn by the person under monitoring. Two alternative sensors are investigated: an accelerometer and an Electret Condenser Microphone (ECM). While the former would be characterized by a low sensitivity with respect to air-borne effects, the latter would provide a larger bandwidth, thus allowing parameters related to the vowel quality to be estimated. Particular attention will be paid towards traceability assurance and uncertainty estimation and a calibration procedure for each of the estimated parameters will be proposed. Preliminary results are here reported that refer to the estimation of the parameters Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F0) through the accelerometer and ECM based measuring chains.

Signals and Communication Technology

This paper deals with the traceability-assurance problems that are faced when a distributed measu... more This paper deals with the traceability-assurance problems that are faced when a distributed measuring system is employed. These problems are highlighted for different distributed-system architecture, then a set of guide-lines are provided in order to correctly manage ...

Proc. X IMEKO TC-4 Symp. Development …, 1998

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1997

This paper describes a low-cost, three-phase power meter, which is based on a fast, specially des... more This paper describes a low-cost, three-phase power meter, which is based on a fast, specially designed acquisition board coupled to a PC via the PC parallel/printer port or by means of an AT card. The power associated with the fundamental and first harmonics is computed by software that operates in the time domain and employs a sample-weighting procedure that makes the uncertainty related to the asynchronous sampling negligible. The low-cost acquisition board features two 8-bit 1 MHz converters and a local RAM, which decouples the PC clock from the measurement requirements. Hall effect transducers are used for the current channels and fast differential amplifiers for the voltage channels. The fast sampling frequency allows simple antialiasing filters to be employed. Digital filtering is used to reduce the sample number while increasing the resolution. The power uncertainty provided by this arrangement is less then 0.1% with 2.5 measurements per second when a low-cost 486DX33based PC is used.

2017 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2017

Monitoring the health of the phonatory system plays a key role for the voice professionals, which... more Monitoring the health of the phonatory system plays a key role for the voice professionals, which are people who use the voice as a work tool. The voice quality can be assessed by means of parameters extracted from the vocal signal sensed by a contact sensor placed at the base of the neck, that is sensitive to the skin vibration related to the phonation. The use of a contact sensor is preferable to a microphone in air because of its lower sensitivity to the acoustical background noise. This paper focus on the development of a system for the characterization of the contact sensor that can be used for this purpose: an apparatus that can mimic the phonatory system and can act like a standard for testing the sensors. Such a system has been created and preliminary tested and characterized, in order to point out the similarity with the real phonatory system and to bring out any critical issue.

Energy Procedia, 2015

This work focuses on the evaluation of acoustical quality in high-school classrooms through in-fi... more This work focuses on the evaluation of acoustical quality in high-school classrooms through in-field measurements and selfreports. Two school buildings that differ in location and typology, were considered. In-field measurements included sound insulation, room acoustics and intelligibility indices in unoccupied and simulated occupied conditions. Teacher's vocal load was monitored over several working days through the Voice Care device and was related to the correspondent background noise and room acoustics. Teachers subjective perception investigated noise disturbance, vocal effort and status after each monitoring. The receiver operating curve was implemented to assess agreement between in-field measurements and self-reports for teachers. The association between objective parameters was assessed with linear regression analysis.

This paper describes an ultrasonic sensor that is able to measure the distance from the ground fr... more This paper describes an ultrasonic sensor that is able to measure the distance from the ground from selected points of a motor vehicle. The sensor is based on the measurement of the time of flight of an ultrasonic pulse, which is reflected by the ground. An uncertainty of 1 mm (1 σ) is obtained at rest or at low speeds; the sensor still works at speeds of up to 30 m/s although at reduced accuracy. Such a performance is obtained by employing a series of optimisations that allows the sensor to self-adapt to different conditions to give the best results. The sensor is composed of only low cost components, thus being apt for first car equipment in many cases

2013 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2013

An optical-fiber displacement measurement system devised for crack monitoring in cultural heritag... more An optical-fiber displacement measurement system devised for crack monitoring in cultural heritage preservation is presented and tested in a long term application. Low ownership and installation costs have been obtained using plastic optical fibers and an intensity-based transducer.

Ce travail presente deux dispositifs pour monitorer les parametres vocaux des professionnels de l... more Ce travail presente deux dispositifs pour monitorer les parametres vocaux des professionnels de la voix, soumis a un excessif charge vocal, c'est a dire l'extension temporelle de l'usage de la voix. Un nouveau prototype de analyseur portable cree par les Auteurs, appelee VOICE CARE, est compare avec le dispositif en commerce KAYPENTAX™. Les dispositifs peuvent etre utilises pour diagnostiquer des maladies du systeme phonatoire et pour prevenir un usage contre-indique de la voix VOICE CARE est un plancher fonde sur un dispositif portable, alimente avec des batteries, et un programme de traitement. L'estime du niveau de pression sonore et de la frequence fondamentale des vibrations induites par les mouvements des cordes vocales est effectuee par un microphone a condensateur electret. L'avantage le plus important de ce dispositif est son cout minimal, que permet de realiser des campagnes de mesurage avec nombreux sujets examines. Les autres avantages sont la garantie de la rapportabilite des parametres estimes, due a la definition des appropriees procedures de reglage, et la qualification de ces parametres en termes de incertitude de mesure

Measurement, 2014

This paper deals with the uncertainty analysis of parameters estimated during long-term monitorin... more This paper deals with the uncertainty analysis of parameters estimated during long-term monitoring of photovoltaic plants. A specifically developed data-acquisition system is briefly described, which has been conceived to be easily calibrated and, if necessary, adjusted to compensate for measuring-chain drifts, in order to assure the traceability of the estimated parameters. The measurement capabilities of the acquisition system are reported in terms of measured quantities and expected uncertainty. Results that refer to a three-year monitoring of ten photovoltaic plants based on different technologies and architectures are reported. The obtained uncertainty is suitable to distinguish the behavior of the different plants, thus allowing a preliminary comparison to be performed among technologies and architectures. Experimental results highlight an important difference between crystalline silicon devices and thin film technologies in regards to degradation.

IMTC/98 Conference Proceedings. IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference. Where Instrumentation is Going (Cat. No.98CH36222)

Abstract The description of industrial lyophilisation processes by means of theoretical models re... more Abstract The description of industrial lyophilisation processes by means of theoretical models requires a balance that is suitable for the very severe environmental conditions that take place in a freeze-dryer. A capacitive analytical balance that is able to operate in the ...

IMTC 2001. Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference. Rediscovering Measurement in the Age of Informatics (Cat. No.01CH 37188)

ABSTRACT The large use of measurement systems based on data-acquisition boards makes the traceabi... more ABSTRACT The large use of measurement systems based on data-acquisition boards makes the traceability-chain assurance a tricky problem, due to the difficulty in consistently calibrating such boards. In this paper the authors describe a travelling standard, which call be used for the calibration of many commercially available acquisition boards. By employing such a travelling standard, the calibration procedure can be remotely exercised by a calibration laboratory through the PC which hosts the board that has to be calibrated. In such a way the calibration results refer to environmental, software and hardware conditions that exactly match the board operating conditions. Furthermore, the board unavailability time is drastically reduced, with a consequent economic advantage for the board owner. The travelling standard embeds a micro-controller, which is responsible for the communication with the PC that hosts the board and for the board-stimulus generation, and a digital multimeter, which acts as a reference standard

2013 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2013

ABSTRACT A low-cost platform is proposed in this paper that has been conceived to monitor the voc... more ABSTRACT A low-cost platform is proposed in this paper that has been conceived to monitor the vocal activity of people that use the voice as a professional tool. Such a platform includes a wearable data-logger and a processing program that allows the vocal parameters to be extracted from the recorded signal. The data-logger is equipped with a contact microphone that is attached to the jugular notch of the person under monitoring, thus sensing the skin acceleration level due to the vibration of the vocal folds. The microphone output is conditioned through a custom circuitry and then sent to a cheap micro-controller-based board, which stores the raw samples onto a micro SDcard. The off-line processing provides an estimation of Sound Pressure Level (SPL), fundamental frequency (F0) and Time Dose (Dt), which are the parameters that seem most suitable for the identification of vocal disorders and the prevention of an improper use of the voice. For the estimated parameters, suitable calibration procedures are implemented and their effectiveness is shown through specifically conceived experimental tests. Experimental results are shown that refer to the calibration of the device and its normal use during monitoring interval of several hours. A comparison with a commercial device is also reported.

Proceedings of the 21st IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37510)

A new technique for disseminating impedance meusuremenr unitsfmm National Metrology Institutes to... more A new technique for disseminating impedance meusuremenr unitsfmm National Metrology Institutes to secondan. laboratories is pmposed in this paper Such a rechnique takes adLSantage of U client-server applicorion over the Internet arid emplqs LI co,,imerciolly available impedance calibrator with computer-interfaring capabilities. The calibrator. which is employed as a traveling standard, is sent to the secondary Iaborarory, where the traceability transfer pmcess toward a digital impedance meter is perjotmed. Such a pmress is remotely managed through the Internet by the Notional Metmlogy Institute. which acquires the measuremenr results and issues the calibration certrfcate of the impedance mete): The proposed solution allows the impedance dissemination pmcrss IO be largely simplified with respect to the trudirional calibmrion technique, so that rhe traceubilifymaintenanre cost a serondary laboratory I u s to susrain is drasticallv reduced. The architecture ofthe developed client-server application over the Internet is described in the paper and prelintinary results rhat are related IO the characterization ofthe emplowd trawling standard are reported.

2014 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA), 2014

The paper describes a new sensor for breath activity monitoring that, being based on optical fibe... more The paper describes a new sensor for breath activity monitoring that, being based on optical fibers, is specifically conceived for applications where the intrinsic safety and the immunity to strong electromagnetic fields are mandatory, such as during MRI. The sensor is based on a plastic optical fiber (POF) in contact with the patient chest and properly modified to be extremely sensitive to deformations induced by normal breathing activity. The paper presents the sensor development procedure, the fiber modification process based on a cold plasma facility, and experimental results carried out during rest and sleeping conditions.

2012 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Proceedings, 2012

ABSTRACT A prototype of portable vocal analyzer is proposed in this paper that is conceived to es... more ABSTRACT A prototype of portable vocal analyzer is proposed in this paper that is conceived to estimate the parameters that allow voice disorders to be identified. The basic architecture of the vocal analyzer is described, which is based on a sensor that is worn by the person under monitoring. Two alternative sensors are investigated: an accelerometer and an Electret Condenser Microphone (ECM). While the former would be characterized by a low sensitivity with respect to air-borne effects, the latter would provide a larger bandwidth, thus allowing parameters related to the vowel quality to be estimated. Particular attention will be paid towards traceability assurance and uncertainty estimation and a calibration procedure for each of the estimated parameters will be proposed. Preliminary results are here reported that refer to the estimation of the parameters Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F0) through the accelerometer and ECM based measuring chains.

Signals and Communication Technology

This paper deals with the traceability-assurance problems that are faced when a distributed measu... more This paper deals with the traceability-assurance problems that are faced when a distributed measuring system is employed. These problems are highlighted for different distributed-system architecture, then a set of guide-lines are provided in order to correctly manage ...

Proc. X IMEKO TC-4 Symp. Development …, 1998

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1997

This paper describes a low-cost, three-phase power meter, which is based on a fast, specially des... more This paper describes a low-cost, three-phase power meter, which is based on a fast, specially designed acquisition board coupled to a PC via the PC parallel/printer port or by means of an AT card. The power associated with the fundamental and first harmonics is computed by software that operates in the time domain and employs a sample-weighting procedure that makes the uncertainty related to the asynchronous sampling negligible. The low-cost acquisition board features two 8-bit 1 MHz converters and a local RAM, which decouples the PC clock from the measurement requirements. Hall effect transducers are used for the current channels and fast differential amplifiers for the voltage channels. The fast sampling frequency allows simple antialiasing filters to be employed. Digital filtering is used to reduce the sample number while increasing the resolution. The power uncertainty provided by this arrangement is less then 0.1% with 2.5 measurements per second when a low-cost 486DX33based PC is used.