Bicycle frames made of carbon fibre are extremely popular for high-performance cycling due to the stiffness-to-weight ratio, which enables greater power transfer. However, products manufactured using carbon fibre are sensitive to impact damage. Therefore, intelligent nondestructive evaluation is a required step to prevent failures and ensure a secure usage of the bicycle. This work proposes an inspection method based on active thermography, a proven technique successfully applied to other materials. Different configurations for the inspection are tested, including power and heating time. Moreover, experiments are applied to a real bicycle frame with generated impact damage of different energies. Tests show excellent results, detecting the generated damage during the inspection. When the results are combined with advanced image post-processing methods, the SNR is greatly increased, and the size and localization of the defects are clearly visible in the images.

Infrared Radiation (IR) artwork inspection is typically performed through active thermography and reflectography with different setups and cameras. While Infrared Radiation Reflectography (IRR) is an established technique in the museum field, exploiting mainly the IR-A (0.7–1.4 µm) band to probe for hidden layers and modifications within the paint stratigraphy system, active thermography operating in the IR-C range (3–5 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m) is less frequently employed with the aim to visualize structural defects and features deeper inside the build-up. In this work, we assess to which extent the less investigated IR-B band (1.5–3 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m) can combine the information obtained from both setups. The application of IR-B systems is relatively rare as there are only a limited amount of commercial systems available due to the technical complexity of the lens coating. This is mainly added as a so-called broadband option on regular Mid-wave infrared radiation (MWIR) (IR-C’/3–5 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m) cameras to increase sensitivity for high temperature applications in industry. In particular, four objects were studied in both reflectographic and thermographic mode in the IR-B spectral range and their results benchmarked with IR-A and IR-C images. For multispectral application, a single benchmark is made with macroscopic reflection mode Fourier transform infrared (MA-rFTIR) results. IR-B proved valuable for visualisation of underdrawings, pencil marks, canvas fibres and wooden grain structures and potential pathways for additional applications such as pigment identification in multispectral mode or characterization of the support (panels, canvas) are indicated.

In-line inspection of advanced components, remains a challenging task in industry. A methodology is discussed which uses numerical simulations to automatically determine the best set of experimental parameters to inspect the structure on defects using active thermography. The inspection is performed using an industrial conveyor belt or a robotic arm optimized using a numerical model of the defected test sample. During the path planning, the directional emissivity is considered for the complex surface and an optimal experimental setup is found. The results show that in-line quality evaluation of complex shaped structures is improved with a minimal amount of inspection time.

The pictorial track exemplifies how the field of interaction design research explores more designerly ways of communicating knowledge in an academic context. In this pictorial, we present the Interactive Dissertation project that explores how the design of a Ph.D. dissertation may embody the experiential qualities of interactive systems that are presented in its (textual) content by leveraging active perception. We report on the research-through-design process and present results from the project's first iteration. We conclude with a visual reflection on the potential of active perception in communicating interactive experiences in print as well as wider implications for the field.