Near future
No Result
View All Result
24 September 2023
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Transports
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
CES2023 / Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine
Near future
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Transports
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+

Understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result
Medicine, Technology

The thumb-sized device quickly "sniffs" bad breath

The old "self-control" of bad breath isn't very effective. A small sensor now promises to check for this condition (which also signals dental problems).

July 27 2021
Gianluca RiccioGianluca Riccio
⚪ 3 minutes
Share12Pin4Tweet8SendShare2ShareShare2
your bottom line

READ IN:

Who likes to have bad breath? I doubt there is anyone who loves to have bad breath, especially when visiting friends and family, at a job interview and especially not on a first date. Bad breath can make things embarrassing, but it's also a sign of serious dental problems. Now, a research team has built a thumb-sized portable device that diagnoses bad breath by quickly "sniffing" the fumes for the gas that makes it stinky: hydrogen sulfide. To use a term dear to Elio: "La conchetta" electronic, Gentlemen.

A little friend who does awkward work

Most people cannot smell their breath. It's a problem, and asking someone to "test" it is embarrassing. There are some halitosis devices that measure small amounts of hydrogen sulfide, but require analysis with (expensive) instruments in the laboratory, which is not feasible for consumers. Previous studies have shown that when some metal oxides react with sulfur-containing gases, their electrical conductivity changes.

For this, to develop a small real-time bad breath analyzer, Kak Namkoong, Il-Doo Kim and colleagues looked for the right combination of substances that would elicit the fastest and strongest response to hydrogen sulfide in the air blown directly onto it. I study was published on ACS Nano.

How the device that analyzes halitosis was born

your bottom line
An example image taken from the study

First, the researchers mixed sodium chloride nanoparticles (an alkali metal salt) and platinum (a noble metal catalyst) with tungsten. They then electrospun the solution into nanofibers which they heated, converting the tungsten to its metal oxide form.

The article continues after the related links

ePANTS, the US government bets on networked clothing

Dryad: when the AI ​​copes (successfully) with forest fires

In preliminary tests of the "halitosis sniff" device, the mix of equal parts of each metal showed the greatest reactivity to hydrogen sulfide, measuring changes in less than 30 seconds. Although this nanofiber reacted with some sulfur-containing gases, it was more sensitive to hydrogen sulfide, creating a response 9,5 and 2,7 times greater, respectively, than dimethyl sulfide or methyl mercaptan.

Finally, the team coated interdigitated gold electrodes with the nanofibers and combined the gas sensor with humidity, temperature and pressure sensors. Result? A small prototype device about the size of a human thumb.

The device correctly identified bad breath 86% of the time in which people's actual breaths were exhaled directly on it. Researchers say this sensor it could be incorporated into very small devices for quick and easy self-diagnosis of halitosis.

One day soon we will have a cell phone that will also be able to tell us "avoid trying the first kiss, that you hurt yourself too much with the onion tonight".

Tags: breathsensors

Latest news

  • Revolutionary generator transforms humidity into continuous electrical energy
  • All the maps of the future: from research tools to doors to tomorrow
  • The bizarre AI that translates the language of chickens
  • Jeddah Tower, construction site of the one kilometer high skyscraper reopens
  • Spider silk from modified silkworms: stronger than Kevlar and 100% natural
  • VIR-1388, HIV vaccine being tested in the USA and South Africa
  • MOWT, innovative floating hydroelectric for slow-flowing waters
  • CRAFT, what stage is the Chinese project to build an artificial Sun?
  • Remote work, halved emissions
  • Shipping pallets in the digital age: how the Internet has revolutionized the logistics landscape


GPT Chat Megaeasy!

Concrete guide for those approaching this artificial intelligence tool, also designed for the school world: many examples of applications, usage indications and ready-to-use instructions for training and interrogating Chat GPT.

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

Enter the Telegram channel of Futuroprossimo, click here. Or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon e LinkedIn.

FacebookTwitterInstagramTelegramLinkedInMastodonPinterestTikTok

The daily tomorrow.


Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Gadgets
  • concepts
  • Design
  • Medicine
  • Spazio
  • Robotica
  • Work
  • Transports
  • Energy
  • Edition Francaise
  • Deutsche Ausgabe
  • Japanese version
  • English Edition
  • Portuguese Edition
  • Read more
  • Spanish edition

Subscribe to our newsletter

  • The Editor
  • Advertising on FP
  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 Near future - Creative Commons License
This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

No Result
View All Result
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Transports
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+