Optical Measurement of Temperatures in Muscles and Tendons

Miniature fiber-optic-coupled sensors based on optically excited, self-resonant microbeams have been proposed for measuring temperatures within muscle fascicles and tendons. The proposed sensors could be used in medical and biological research on humans and other animals. The proposed sensors would be variants of those described in several previous articles in NASA Tech Briefs: "Proximity Measurement of Pressure and Temperature" (NPO-20223), Vol. 22, No. 1 (January 1998), page 48; and "Measurement of Stresses and Strains in Muscles and Tendons" elsewhere in this issue.