OREANDA-NEWS. August 4, 2011. NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and NEC TOKIN Corporation (NEC TOKIN) announced today the development of sensor technologies that enable real-time visibility of damages or deterioration to buildings and essential utilities, including cracks in walls, water lines and gas lines, by detecting minute abnormalities in motion or vibrations with an exceptional level of precision.

This newly developed sensor is twenty times (*) more sensitive than existing technologies and detects an exceptionally wide frequency range of vibrations while utilizing an oscillatory waveform analysis technique produced by NEC. The sensor also features improved ceramic materials and an original vibration magnification mechanism that enables highly efficient conversion of minute vibrations into electrical signals.

As a result of these developments, the new sensor is highly-sensitive to a wide range of minute vibrations that were formerly difficult to detect, which enables signs of deterioration or damage to a building to be identified in real-time.

Minute vibrations spanning a wide range of frequencies are produced by such causes as electronic equipment operating abnormally, buildings shaking and pipes cracking. In the past, it was necessary to use several different sensors in order to collect and analyze the broad range of frequency bands that can be produced by these circumstances. However, these new technologies enable signs of deterioration or damage to be viewed in real-time with just one sensor.

Looking forward, NEC and NEC TOKIN will continue proactively developing products equipped with these technologies, including systems that leverage networked cloud computing to remotely observe and analyze data from vibration sensors that detect deterioration or damage to an environment.

Furthermore, NEC TOKIN plans to begin production of this newly developed piezoelectric vibration sensor beginning in August 2011.