Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Smartphone with spectrometer

carrant - 9-1-2017 at 13:43

Changhon H2 phone with an integrated spectrometer.

SCiO Sensor added to smartphone

One more step to a Star Trek Tricoder!

Bert - 9-1-2017 at 14:11

How much computing power and memory for the library and software... How much difference in the camera from standard detectors, lens materials.

How long until all the smart phones are reporting environmental background chemistry to whoever on demand, or just continuously.

carrant - 9-1-2017 at 14:58

Quote: Originally posted by Bert  
How much computing power and memory for the library and software... How much difference in the camera from standard detectors, lens materials.


I was also curious about the footprint of the library and the API. but their SDK for the standalone detector using BLE is $499 USD and will not ship for 6-8 weeks.

I looked at their patents but didn't see anything related to what type of processor is used for detection. My guess would be a dedicated DSP but maybe they are able to run their detector using SIMD instructions.
Quote: Originally posted by Bert  
How long until all the smart phones are reporting environmental background chemistry to whoever on demand, or just continuously.


Interesting you mentioned that - Consumer Physics has a patent for monitoring the food consumption of a person.

Wearable Spectroscopic Sensor to Measure Food Consumption Based on Interaction Between Light and the Human Body

Ideally there would be a option to enable/disable detection.. But you never know about those firmware engineers! ;-)

aga - 9-1-2017 at 16:09

In the link the phone says "Scan Body Fat ... Creating Spectrum"

Then it turns over so you can't see the screen.

ROFL !

Edit:

Got to get me one of those before they change the programming.

[Edited on 10-1-2017 by aga]

PHILOU Zrealone - 11-1-2017 at 14:13

I have much doubts about this...
How can the device emits medium intensity light onto an object surface and determine the chemical content inside the object? It works on mars because of laser ionisation and vapourization of matter.
Usually spectrometry works with light passing through a material (absorption) or under a specific angle (emission).

--> The sugar content of an apple (usually made by refractive index/brix meter of a slice) without direct view of the juicy part...to my knowledge the skin of an apple doesn't contain any sugar...no sugar taste if you don't bite into it!

--> The chemical content of a drug/med pil without visibility of the inside and only by interaction with its outside seems also stange because most pils are coated with products (colourizers, gels, polymer, sugar, ...) that have nothing to do with the internal active ingredient.

[Edited on 11-1-2017 by PHILOU Zrealone]

getting closer to a tricoder

Sulaiman - 27-1-2017 at 10:22

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-XRF-ALLOY-analyzer-X-Ray-Spect...

PHILOU Zrealone - 27-1-2017 at 16:28

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-XRF-ALLOY-analyzer-X-Ray-Spect...

Looks like a Star Trek phase pistol :D:P;):)

phlogiston - 27-1-2017 at 16:58

Quote: Originally posted by PHILOU Zrealone  
I have much doubts about this...
How can the device emits medium intensity light onto an object surface and determine the chemical content inside the object? It works on mars because of laser ionisation and vapourization of matter.
Usually spectrometry works with light passing through a material (absorption) or under a specific angle (emission).

--> The sugar content of an apple (usually made by refractive index/brix meter of a slice) without direct view of the juicy part...to my knowledge the skin of an apple doesn't contain any sugar...no sugar taste if you don't bite into it!

--> The chemical content of a drug/med pil without visibility of the inside and only by interaction with its outside seems also stange because most pils are coated with products (colourizers, gels, polymer, sugar, ...) that have nothing to do with the internal active ingredient.

[Edited on 11-1-2017 by PHILOU Zrealone]



NIR can penetrate into the sample a little bit. At work, a colegue has bought a few SCiO sensors to compare their performance to other methods we use (mainly LCMSMS, GCMS, Raman/IR and NMR) and to 'play' with. Preliminary tests indicate it is capable of distinguishing between pills and sometimes able to identify the active ingredient but coatings definately impact the result.