Geography, death and finitude

publication-status: PublishedRomanillos J L, 2011. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published Environment and Planning A, 2011, Vol. 43, Issue 11, pp. 2533 – 2553 DOI: 10.1068/a4474Copyright © 2011 PionDespite growing interest in the geographies of death, loss, and remembrance, comparatively little geographical research has been devoted either to the historical and cultural practices of death, or to an adequate conceptualisation of finitude. Responding to these absences, in this paper I argue for the importance of the notion of finitude within the history and philosophy of geographical thought. Situating finitude initially in the context of the work of Torsten Hägerstrand and Richard Hartshorne, the notion is argued to be both productive of a geographical ethics, and as epistemologically constitutive of phenomenological apprehensions of ‘earth’ and ‘world’. In order to better grasp the sense and genealogy of finitude, I turn to the work of Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, and Georges Bataille. These authors are drawn upon precisely because their writings present powerful conceptual frameworks which demonstrate the intimate relations between spatiality, death, and finitude. At the same time, their writings are critically interrogated in the light of perhaps the most important aspect of the conceptual history of finitude: the way in which it has been articulated as a site of anthropocentric distinction. I argue for a critical deconstruction of this anthropocentric basis to finitude; a deconstruction which raises a series of profound questions over the ethics, normativities, and understandings of responsibility shaping contemporary ethical geographies of the human and nonhuman. In so doing, I demonstrate the geographical importance of the notion of finitude for a variety of arenas of debate which include: phenomenological understandings of spatiality; the biopolitical boundaries drawn between human and animal; and contemporary theorisations of corporeality, materiality, and hospitality

Performance of an optical encoder based on a nondiffractive beam implemented with a specific photodetection integrated circuit and a diffractive optical element

In this paper, we study the incremental signal produced by an optical encoder based on a nondiffractive beam (NDB). The NDB is generated by means of a diffractive optical element (DOE). The detection system is composed by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) sensor. The sensor consists of an array of eight concentric annular photodiodes, each one provided with a programmable gain amplifier. In this way, the system is able to synthesize a nonuniform detectivity. The contrast, amplitude, and harmonic content of the sinusoidal output signal are analyzed. The influence of the cross talk among the annular photodiodes is placed in evidence through the dependence of the signal contrast on the wavelength.Fil: Perez Quintian, Luis Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Calarco, Nicolás Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Lutenberg, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Lipovetzky, José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentin

Pattern matching oriented photodetector image sensor with programmable interconnection between pixels

We present a photodetector sensor that is able to perform preprocessing operations on the focal plane. Each pixel can be connected with any of its neighbors in order to implement detection zones defined by software. The output current of the sensor is a customizable weighted sum of the currents sourced at the defined detection zones. This characteristic leads to applications related to pattern matching. Two examples are shown in our work: one is related to speckle correlation for real-time vibration detection, and the other one is an alternative image recording method that is the first step to an on-hardware compressed sensing technique.Fil: Calarco, Nicolás Ezequiel. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Confluencia. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Lipovetzky, José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Lutenberg, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Perez Quintian, Luis Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Confluencia. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentin

Self-aligning CMOS photodetector sensor for application on an NDB-based optical encoder

In this work, a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) photodetector specifically designed to be used in a non-diffracting-beam (NDB) optical encoder is introduced. The sensor is aimed to address the critical alignment of the NDB-based optical encoder head and consists of a hexagonal array of photodiodes that can be interconnected among themselves. The photodiodes’ interconnection is configured by means of static random access memory (SRAM) cells and transistors that operate as configurable connection switches between each photodiode and three of its neighbor photodiodes. This feature of the photodetector makes it possible to implement a search algorithm in order to find the photodiode where the NDB center impinges and then configure the appropriate detectivity pattern centered on that photodiode. It is shown that the new sensor design remarkably simplifies the alignment of the system.Fil: Calarco, Nicolás Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación En Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Mombello, Lucas. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Lipovetzky, José. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; ArgentinaFil: Lutenberg, Ariel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Perez Quintián, Fernando. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentin