How it Works
Saving Lives by Rapid and Accurate Identification of Toxic Gas
Our Optoelectronic Nose is developed from more than 50 scientific publications, it has been awarded major awards from international scientific societies, and it is protected by six patents.
By sounding a first alert to toxins, we provide rapid individual protection against exposure to hazardous materials. We can rapidly identify and quantitate the fingerprints of more than 20 high-hazard toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), with error rates below 1% over a wide range of concentrations, from well above immediately dangerous concentrations to well below the permissible exposure levels. The use of the optoelectronic nose goes beyond protecting the first responder: it is an essential tool for establishing a safe perimeter for civilians and giving early warning for timely evacuation of residential areas.
Our optoelectronic nose is made up of an inexpensive colorimetric sensor array held in a disposable cartridge and a hand-held analyzer: a fully self-contained device with onboard computing and a library of array responses. Chemical analysis uses the pattern of color changes of an array of chemically responsive dyes before and after exposure. This pattern is a high-dimensional difference vector that is a “molecular fingerprint” unique for any chemical mixture.
Inexpensive Colorimetric
Sensor Array
Comparison of Various Toxic
Gas Sensor Technologies
Chemically responsive inks are chosen to be responsive to a broad range of targets. Used together, cross-reactive inks give unique patterns - they are much more than a simple one-to-one reaction. Sections of the array are also chosen for enhanced sensitivity toward certain categories of chemicals - these inks also contribute to the overall response for every target. This combined response dramatically enhances the scope of potential chemical targets, and allows for unparalleled ability to identify and quantify targets of interest.
Current technology to detect toxic gases are too expensive, too insensitive, too slow, too cumbersome, or not sufficiently specific.
