Patent 7701586 was granted and assigned to Polytechnic Institute of New York University on April, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Stresses and strains on a solid surface subject to a fluid flow are dynamically measured based on a shift of optical resonances of a micro-resonator. The elastic deformation and refractive index change of a micro-resonator due to mechanical stress is exploited. With this approach, mechanical deformations in the order of a nanometer can be detected and related to shear stress.