NEC Laboratories America

Optical Sensing & Solutions

From early concepts and laboratory validation to proven field deployments on live infrastructure, we develop technologies that sense the physical world, transform observations into intelligence, and enable informed action. Building on our expertise in optics and photonics, we are expanding toward multimodal sensing, AI-powered understanding, and intelligent systems that interact with the physical world.

Deployed telecom cables, urban fiber networks, and emerging optical sensors provide a powerful foundation for observing the physical world at scale. Our research spans forward-looking theoretical studies, cutting-edge experiments, artificial intelligence, and world- and industry-first field trials. We transform existing infrastructure into dense, real-time sensing platforms capable of monitoring complex environments over large areas.

Our research follows a broad sense–understand–act vision. We develop optical and distributed fiber sensing technologies that capture physical phenomena; AI methods that interpret complex signals, combine information across sensors, diagnose events, and predict changing conditions; and intelligent solutions that translate these insights into decisions and responses. Looking ahead, we envision extending this foundation beyond optical sensing to multimodal sensing and autonomous systems, including robotics, that can perceive, reason about, and respond to the physical world.

Our current work spans optical sensing, infrared imaging and spectroscopy, radio-frequency spectrum sensing and AI-enabled sensing analytics. These technologies can detect, localize, and characterize vibrations, intrusions, equipment conditions, and environmental changes along an infrastructure network’s physical route. By integrating sensing with edge computing and AI, we seek to move beyond data collection toward real-time understanding, prediction, and automated response.

By uniting advanced sensing, physical-world AI, and intelligent action, Optical Sensing & Solutions aims to create safer, more resilient, and more autonomous systems for infrastructure, utilities, transportation, environmental monitoring, public safety, smart cities, and intelligent manufacturing.

Join Us

Are you interested in joining us? We seek the next generation of thought leaders in optical sensing for researcher positions. Outstanding applicants pursuing a career in optical sensing are encouraged to visit our careers page to learn more and apply for available positions.

Summer 2026 Internship Applications are now closed.

Exciting internship opportunities for Summer 2027 will be available on our internship page this fall.  We are looking for students pursuing advanced degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Internships are typically 3 months long during the summer. The benefits of working for us include the opportunity to quickly join a project team applying cutting-edge technology to industry-leading concepts.

To apply for a Summer Internship, visit our Internship page.

Learn More

Want to learn more about our optical sensing & solutions department? Meet our team of experts, check out our blog posts, or read our latest publications.

Featured Optical Sensing & Solutions Research Projects

Latest Optical Sensing & Solutions News

Static Weight Detection and Localization on Aerial Fiber Cables using Distributed Acoustic Sensing

We demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge, the detection and localization of a static weight on an aerial cable by using frequency domain decomposition analysis of ambient vibrations detected by a φ-DAS system.

Vehicle Run-Off-Road Event Automatic Detection by Fiber Sensing Technology

We demonstrate a new application of fiber-optic-sensing and machine learning techniques for vehicle run-off-road events detection to enhance roadway safety and efficiency. The proposed approach achieves high accuracy in a testbed under various experimental conditions.

Automatic Fine-Grained Localization of Utility Pole Landmarks on Distributed Acoustic Sensing Traces Based on Bilinear Resnets

In distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) on aerial fiber-optic cables, utility pole localization is a prerequisite for any subsequent event detection. Currently, localizing the utility poles on DAS traces relies on human experts who manually label the poles’ locations by examining DAS signal patterns

Distributed Fiber Sensor Network using Telecom Cables as Sensing Media: Applications

Distributed fiber optical systems (DFOS) allow deployed optical cables to monitor the ambient environment over wide geographic area. We review recent field trial results, and show how DFOS can be made compatible with passive optical networks (PONs).

Field Trial of Vibration Detection and Localization using Coherent Telecom Transponders over 380-km Link

We demonstrate vibration detection and localization based on extracting optical phase from the DSP elements of a coherent receiver in bidirectional WDM transmission of 200-Gb/s DP-16QAM over 380 km of installed field fiber.

Optics and Biometrics

Forget passwords—identity verification can now be accomplished with the touch of a finger or in the blink of an eye as the biometrics field expands to encompass new techniques and application areas.