Initial efforts to integrate miniature chemical sensors into standard cell phones have proven the concept is feasible, at least in the laboratory, and the next step in the program will be to build prototypes for additional testing and expand the number of chemicals that can be detected, a program official with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate tells TR2.
The Cell-All program, which is designed to provide greater chemical detection capabilities in areas where people congregate, began about two years ago. After culling through over 100 proposals, S&T about a year ago awarded three contracts of Phase I of the program, says Steve Dennis, the Cell-All program manager. Contracts were awarded to NASA’s Ames Research Center, Qualcomm, Inc. [QCOM], and Rhevision Technology, Inc.
In the first phase, which is currently wrapping up, the program has shown that “we can get meaningful detection” in the laboratory on a few Toxic Industrial Chemicals such as ammonia and chlorine, Dennis says. Additionally, software has been developed and a certain level of integration has been attained, he adds.
“It looks like the art of the possible so far,” Dennis says.
In the next phase the list of chemicals needs to be expanded and show that detection can be done against more challenging backgrounds which will be where the “heavy lifting” is done, Dennis says. There are field studies underway, he adds.
Another aspect of Phase II will be to show that the cell phones equipped with the chemical sensors can be networked. Dennis says that in a public demonstration of the technology late last month, Qualcomm’s system was able to detect the presence of a chemical and send a message to his Blackberry that also tried to measure the concentration of the chemical.
Various Solutions
Qualcomm is partnered with Seacoast Science, which provides the miniaturized chemical sensors that are integrated with a research phone that is larger than a typical cell phone, Dennis says. Qualcomm is also working with another small company, Synkera Technologies, which received a DHS small business research contract in 2008 to develop a micro sensor for integration into a cell phone.
Qualcomm wants to better understand how the sensors and phones interface, which will help toward eventually developing an interface standard for industry, a byproduct of the Cell-All effort, Dennis says. Another byproduct of the overall program will be the datasets it generates, which can be used to create other standards or help produce other spin- off products, he says.
In Rhevision’s solution, the company has replaced the camera lens in a cell phone with a microfluidic lens that still functions as a camera but uses a microscope to focus on the surface of a chemical sensor. That chemical sensor is an “artificial nose” that uses a silicon surface etched with tiny holes to mimic the surface of a beetle shell to produce changes in color when different molecules fill the holes. The microfluidic lens then sees and measures the color changes to determine if harmful chemicals are present.
NASA’s offering combines a micro sensor and an Apple iPhone.
The original plan for Cell-All called for integrating chemical and biological sensors into cell phones but it was clear early on that “no one had a good idea” how to make bio- sensors work with fluidics in the phone, Dennis says. Although that type of integration is “far away,” Dennis says he has a program starting in FY ’10 aimed at developing a low- cost, dry bio-detector.
In Phase II of Cell-All Dennis plans to collaborate with the public health policy community to better understand what their requirements might be, such as the “parameters of detection.”
Dennis had $2 million for Phase I of Cell-All and is funded for $2.5 million in FY ’10. He isn’t sure how many contractors he will carry through Phase II but in about a year he expects to have “tens of prototypes” available to begin pilot tests with first responders. There are first responder agencies already interested in testing the technology, he says.