This conference is now the sixth of the Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) series, the first having been launched in London in 1983. Progress over the last six years has been rapid and the number of laboratories working in the field has grown significantly. In addition, the number of commercially available sensors is growing, although, as usual, not as rapidly as the wilder optimists originally predicted. The subject is now maturing significantly, yet this volume shows that there is still no shortage of bright, new ideas. The OFS series is devoted to the most recent research developments in the field and, in most respects, leaves commercially oriented conferences to cover items closest to production. However, as the technology progresses, it is appropriate to provide some coverage of applications-oriented research and development, and more applied sessions of this nature have been included. The standard of papers contributed to the conference has been very high this year, and it has unfortunately been necessary to reject a number of interesting papers. Those that remain, invited, contributed and poster papers, are included in this volume. The poster papers were chosen for their greater suitability for presentation to smaller groups of people, giving more scope for detailed discussion around the poster display.
