You all know the smell of rotten food. But often it begins to deteriorate long before it appears on this repellent "flavor." And this can easily lead to food poisoning. Chemists from the Massachusetts Institute of technology figured out how to solve this problem and to protect our stomachs.
Some time, experts from MIT have worked on inexpensive wireless sensor that, among other things, will be able to identify spoiled food by the presence of the specific chemical secretions in the air around her. The sensor sends the processed data to a smartphone, alerting the user that the content of a pan in the refrigerator fell into disrepair and it is now dangerous to your health.
"The beauty of these sensors is their low cost, β told the journalists of the portal Gizmag.com a chemistry Professor from MIT Timothy Swager, You just stick these sensors on food or on the dishes in which food is stored, and then passing by, you can consider their testimony. No wires. No batteries required. And this technology can be used in various spheres of our life."
Timothy Swager engaged in the development of chemical sensors in 2007. Then they were developed in order to determine the presence of air in fumes from dangerous explosives. These sensors were supposed to serve the society at airports, railway stations and other public places. Professor for his invention even awarded a grant in the amount of $ 500,000. The money he used to dramatically improve their technology and make it even more versatile.
Updated sensors that support NFC, which is so actively promoted on the market today, manufacturers of smartphones. The sensors themselves are created on the basis of carbon nanotubes, developed in order to determine the presence of the air molecules of a particular gas.
As power source sensors use a magnetic field of the smartphone that the user brings the sensor to read its values. That is, inside the sensor there are no batteries. The magnetic field creates an electric current inside contour of the sensor, and it starts to work.
At the moment, each sensor may be configured to recognize one specific gas. And in order to make the sensor turn on, the smartphone must be presented to him at a distance of at least 5 centimeters. During laboratory tests of the sensors with incredible accuracy revealed the presence in the air of gaseous ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, cyclohexanone and other substances.
Potentially such sensors can be used in various fields of human life. As we have mentioned above, they can be on guard security to detect explosives, can determine the level of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, or to determine hazardous concentrations of any gas in the premises of the enterprise. Let's see whether the creators of this technology is to implement it in our lives in the future.
Source: hi-news.ru