Optical chemical sensor feedback control system

An optical sensor feedback control system comprising:

• (a) a luminescent sensing film;
• (b) an optical processor adjacent said sensing film comprising:
• (i) a light source for luminescent photoexcitation of said sensing film, and
• (ii) a photodetector for detection of luminescent emission of said sensing film;
• (c) a computer control means in communication with the optical processor, said computer control means operable to transmit commands concerning positioning of the light source and luminescent sensing films, and frequency and magnitude of the luminescent photoexcitation by the light source;
• (d) a computer program product operable to be executed on the computer control means, said computer program product comprising a computer useable medium embodying computer useable program code for initiating, monitoring and controlling the magnitude of the luminescent photoexcitation (fluorescence signal magnitude) of the luminescent sensing film by the light source, receiving parameter sensitive luminescent emission signal data, determining magnitude and phase shift of resulting luminescent emissions relative to the luminescent photoexcitation;
• diagnosing a condition of the luminescent sensing film from the magnitude;
• the condition of the luminescent sensing film comprising degradation of the luminescent sensing film due to photobleaching;
• and
• (e) an optical processor positioning means in communication with the computer control means and the optical processor, said optical processor control means operable to adjust the physical position of the optical processor in relation to the luminescent sensing film based on the commands received from the computer control means.