sniffers

11.22.09

NASA Scientist Converts iPhone into Chemical Sniffer

A new plug-in iPhone device can detect airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 11.11.2009 at 4:46 pm 2 Comments

Cell phones have increasingly become mobile labs and tech tools for researchers, and now NASA has gotten in on the act. A postage-stamp-sized chemical sensor allows iPhones to sniff out low airborne concentrations of chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine gas and methane.

A puff from a "sample jet" helps sense any airborne chemicals. That information gets processed by a silicon chip consisting of 16 nanosensors, and then passes on to another phone or computer through any Wi-Fi or telecom network.

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READ MORE ABOUT > apps, cell phones, chemicals, detectors, iphone, nasa, plug-in, sensors, smart phones, sniffers

The State of the Art of Electronic Noses

Three new e-noses use three different methods to sniff out everything from freon to fatty acids

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.25.2009 at 12:19 pm 1 Comment

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet; we all know that. But what about a rose smelled by a non-human nose? What would it smell like?

Well, an electronic nose is no Shakespeare, so you'd lose some of the poetry. But a new generation of e-noses is is poised to give a whole new meaning to the sense of smell.

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READ MORE ABOUT > agriculture, detection, e-noses, electronic noses, health, JPL, medicine, nasa, sniffers, sniffing

Training Machines to Detect the Smell Of Death

By Susannah F. Locke Posted 08.19.2009 at 7:29 am 2 Comments

Researchers are now profiling the chemicals released from decaying bodies, in an effort to create a sensor that might be able to sniff out corpses in the rubble, or determine a dearly departed's precise time of death.

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READ MORE ABOUT > crime, death, forensic medicine, forensic scientist, forensics, scent, scent detection, smell, sniffers