Rice University has received a $15 million award from the U.S. Army Research Office to establish a five-year research center dedicated to advancing secure sensing, imaging and communications. The Center for Large Aperture Secure Sensing, Imaging and Communications, or CLASSIC, brings together researchers from universities and national laboratories across the country to develop advanced antenna technologies for future wireless systems.

Researchers have developed realistic skin-mimicking models that could help improve the accuracy of optical medical devices and wearable sensors across a wider range of skin tones. The multilayer silicone phantoms incorporate artificial blood vessels and simulated blood flow, enabling controlled testing of technologies such as pulse oximeters. The team found that coffee more closely replicated the optical properties of skin pigmentation than commercial skin-tone pigments, producing reflectance spectra of multi-layered phantoms that better matched human skin. Imaging experiments showed that darker pigmented layers increasingly masked signals from underlying blood vessels, reflecting a known challenge for light-based health measurements. The durable phantoms may provide a valuable tool for reducing skin-tone-related bias in the development and evaluation of optical healthcare technologies.