These add-on modules might be designed for measuring vibration, temperature or displacement in fields where precision is important, such as agriculture, aviation and the medical field.

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Image quality is checked, along with other functions, before the camera heads to temperature and vibration testing in a sealed chamber.

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Twine itself is a block of plastic containing an accelerometer (which senses motion or vibration), a temperature sensor and a processor much like Botanicalls.

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They are certified to MIL-STD 810G for extremes in temperature, vibration, shock and four-foot drops and have an IP65 rating for ingress protection, which means they are fully protected against dust and can withstand low pressure jets of water from all directions.

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John Kestner and David Carr created Twine, a 2.5 inch-square device with on-board temperature and vibration sensors, as well as an expansion connector for other sensors, such as moisture sensors and magnetic switches, all tightly integrated through WiFi with a cloud-based service.

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"Underground, everything is much more stable, " says Zhao, referring to factors such as temperature, humidity and vibration.

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Panasonic's P2 solid-state memory cards ensure highly reliable video, audio, and metadata recording, especially in challenging conditions of extreme temperature range, shock, and vibration.

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