A NASA scientist has come up with a working prototype of chemical-sniffing circuitry as a test of technology that could one day become standard equipment on cell phones in the US. The sensing device attaches to the bottom of an iPhone and uses the data connection to collect, process and report the results.
Jing Li, a physical scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California developed this prototype as a proof of concept of new technology that would bring compact, low-cost, low-power, high-speed nanosensor-based chemical sensing capabilities to cell phones. Li worked with other researchers under a grant from the "Cell-All" program of the US Department of Homeland Security to develop tools that would better enable the government to quickly respond in case of a chemical release or terror attack.