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Hi all who might be on this list.

One of my research assistants found the SOWACS list by accident. So 
here we are..

Our interest in soil moisture measurement over the last two years has 
resulted in several projects which may be of interest to you. We have 
been looking at dielectric based measurement sensors. So far we have 
had success with capacitive sensors for oil quality assessment (for 
refineries). The soild moisture problem is a much more difficult 
problem, but we are trying some novel techniques.

The lab is called : Centre for Instrumentation Research and is part 
of the School of Electrical Engineering at the Cape Technikon.  
Research leaders are myself (Bruce Mortimer), Jon Tapson and Q Smit. 
You can see some of the work on the www -  
http://www.ctech.ac.za/ElecEng/CIR/

I have come across a rather unusual approach by Dr Jim Sabbatier 
(JASA) that could possibly be used in moisture measurement; he uses 
an acoustic source and two microphones (one is a geophone) to capture 
the surface and ground wave in the soil. Using clever acoustics and 
DSP you can apparently discriminate between dry and wet soil, root 
health etc. My understanding of the papers though leads me to 
conclude that this technique is a long way from production.

I would be very interested to hear what aspects of moisture 
measurement members of this discussion group are busy with.

Regards

Bruce Mortimer

(Senior Lecturer)
School of Elec Eng
Cape Technikon
BMORT@norton.ctech.ac.za