What would you do with a pocket-sized spectrometer?

"A tiny, fast, and powerful light analyzer could soon bring lab-grade spectroscopy to your pocket. Credit: Shutterstock" (ScitechDaily, This Tiny Device Could Turn Your Phone Into a Lab-Grade Spectrometer)

"A team of engineers has unveiled a revolutionary mini-spectrometer that can fit on a fingertip and operate with low voltage, scanning light from UV to near-infrared in under a millisecond. "(ScitechDaily, This Tiny Device Could Turn Your Phone Into a Lab-Grade Spectrometer)

"This game-changing device replaces bulky traditional spectrometers and could soon be embedded in smartphones, unlocking powerful tools for material analysis, biomedical diagnostics, and more—right in your pocket. Its tiny photodetector shifts light sensitivity with simple voltage changes, offering speed and precision in a package smaller than a pixel." (ScitechDaily, This Tiny Device Could Turn Your Phone Into a Lab-Grade Spectrometer)

The new device transforms a normal cell phone into a lab-grade spectrometer. That kind of tool can be useful in many situations. Spectrometers can search for air pollution, pollution from water, poisonous substances, etc. People like crime-scene investigators, house inspectors, military personnel, and all interested people can use those systems for searching for chemical compounds. 

A spectrometer is a multi-use tool. It can search all types of chemical compounds. People who work in a crisis environment can search for things like nerve gases in the air using spectrometers. A pocket-sized spectrometer can give a warning about a chemical weapon. And that gives time to begin the counteractions. 

"Researchers have successfully demonstrated a spectrometer that is orders of magnitude smaller than current technologies and can accurately measure wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The technology makes it possible to create hand-held spectroscopy devices and holds promise for the development of devices that incorporate an array of the new sensors to serve as next-generation imaging spectrometers. This photo shows a series of prototype organic photodetector-based spectrometer cells. Each metal bar is a detector capable of measuring light spectra. Credit: Brendan O’Connor, NC State University" (ScitechDaily, This Tiny Device Could Turn Your Phone Into a Lab-Grade Spectrometer)

The spectrometer that cooperates with AI assistants can tell about things like harmful chemicals. And that tool can be useful in everyday life, scientific, leisure, and military worlds. The system that can search for poisonous chemicals can make our holidays successful. That kind of system can tell if we can drink some water or if some kind of food is contaminated. The thing that makes us sick is often chemicals that bacteria create in their metabolism.

The system can search for things like botulinum in meat or other toxic chemicals. If we connect a spectrometer to a telescope, that thing can tell us about the chemical environment of some other planet or distant houses. The system can also connect with microscopes that give the possibility to see chemical reactions in very small objects like cells. 

Pocket-sized spectrometers that can tell about chemical mixtures can revolutionize laboratory work and chemistry learning. Those things are useful in all cases where people want to see what some chemical compounds involve. Those things can tell how well an engine burns fuel. Or how clean water is. That kind of information can save lives. 

https://scitechdaily.com/this-tiny-device-could-turn-your-phone-into-a-lab-grade-spectrometer/