A new accessory for your iPhone: a NASA-developed chemical sensor
What's better than a handful of sensors for determining if some hostile enemy has set off chemical weapons in a city? How about hundreds of thousands or millions of sensors? If research being done by NASA Ames Research Center under the Cell-All program in the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate is taken into production, your next smartphone might contain chemical-sensing circuitry.A recent article in OnOrbit described a proof of concept that was developed by Jing Li, a scientist at Ames, and a group of other researchers. In order to test out the tiny nanosensor-based chemical sensing circuitry, Li and his team created a device that plugs into the dock port of an iPhone.
To quote the original post,
A newer version of the sensor has 64 nanosensors built-in and is less than 1 cm on a side. Isn't it cool that your iPhone is getting to be more like a Star Trek tricorder every day?The new device is able to detect and identify low concentrations of airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The device senses chemicals in the air using a "sample jet" and a multiple-channel silicon-based sensing chip, which consists of 16 nanosensors, and sends detection data to another phone or a computer via telephone communication network or Wi-Fi.
[via Gizmodo]
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Source: http://www.onorbit.com/node/1702
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What's better than a handful of sensors for determining if some hostile enemy has set off chemical weapons in a city? How about hundreds of...
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Can't believe they have to plug it directly in to the port, even on a test bench.
They really should be using a port extender cable. But I guess nobody makes any?
WOOHOOO! It's getting more like a tricorder all the time!
November 14 2009 at 9:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHey, isn't that the new mac mini on that plug-in?
November 13 2009 at 6:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIs it just me or did Apple in a keynote tout a whole bunch of extra dock adaptor peripherals like a blood pressure cuff? Are those ever going to come out?
November 13 2009 at 2:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyNow, Twitter users everywhere can live the dream of posting EVERY time they fart!
November 13 2009 at 2:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOh boy. First fart apps, now fart detectors...
November 13 2009 at 12:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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