Today smartphones follow a Swiss-Army-Knife trend that integrates several smart features, like cameras, MP3 players, GPS, Wi-Fi and even a bar code scanner into a compact device that you can easily carry around. In future smartphones might just house something much more important than a 5MP camera. They’ll be able to sniff out toxic chemicals in the air and alert the user and other authorities.
The technology is being developed by Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate’s Cell-All initiative. Cell-All aims to equip cellphones with a sensor that is capable to sniff out deadly chemicals. The technology is ingenious and the chip that performs the job is likely to cost less than a dollar. The chip is programmer either to alert the cellphone carrier and/or a central station that can monitor how many alerts in an area are being received.
Just as antivirus software bides its time in the background and springs to life when it spies suspicious activity, so Cell-All would regularly sniffs the surrounding air for certain volatile chemical compounds. When a threat is sensed, an alert ensues in one of two ways. For personal safety issues such as a chlorine gas leak, a warning is sounded; the user can choose a vibration, noise, text message or phone call. For catastrophes such as a sarin gas attack, details including time, location and the compound are phoned home to an emergency operations center.
