People have been trying to turn cellphones into medical and atmospheric scanners
for some time now, but when it's NASA stepping up to the plate with a little device to monitor trace amounts of chemicals in the air, it's hard to not start thinking we might finally have a use for all those tricorder ringtones. Developed by a team of researchers at the Ames Research Center led by Jing Li, the device is a small chip that plugs into the bottom of an iPhone and uses 16 nanosensors to detect the concentration of gasses like ammonia, chlorine, and methane. To what purpose exactly this device will serve and why the
relatively closed iPhone was chosen as a development platform are mysteries we're simply not capable of answering. Damn it, man, we're bloggers not scientists!
Update: George Yu, a developer who wrote this implementation for Jing Li, commented to let us know that the choice to go with the iPhone was made because it was "cool," but he soon realized that choice was a "horrible mistake." We're guessing that could have something to do with an apparent lack of wireless coverage at Ames if the above screenshot is anything to go by.
posted November 13th 2009 7:36AM
HAHA
Apple rejects NASA...
seriously I want a TRIQUARTER for cheap!
Tricorder.
A Triquarter would be cheap, that's only 75 cents.
I work at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. I will try to get into contact with Jing Li and see if it would be possible to move the project over to Android considering Apple's tough App Store restrictions.
Lets see...you could use this to:
check radon levels in your basement
check any houses you're looking at buying for traces of chemicals related to meth labs (most state laws don't require disclosure or thorough clean up, and your family can get seriously sick)
check carbon monoxide levels
maybe even check your cars emissions levels (I think some places charge for that)
If it had a "scratch and sniff" feature (it does use "nanosensosr") it could even check products you buy for traces of dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde, coal tar, or even lead.
gas leak? there's an app for that.
Ahhh, even NASA is creating a Fart App!
Fart detecting app?
iTricorder
If the chlorine doesn't kill you the battery will
why on the iphone?
can I get a 'marketing gimmick'!
Cause a lot of Trekkies have iPhones, and why would NASA invest additional money in hardware that is already availiable to run their application. By using this device they cut down hardware costs by a tremendous amount, they had access to some of the best programming tools on the planet, and they are able to appeal to a large market (something like 30 million devices including iPods I think).
So the question isn't "why the iPhone?" but "why would they put it on any other device?"
I don't see why it's a marketing gimmick. It's a cool gadget. And you know its on a jail-broken iPhone.
Yes. Why the iPhone?
Consider that this wont be for the average Joe, but likely for industrial applications. Maybe the iPhone can be 'ruggedized' to withstand the abuse - in which case, I can see the platform (and others) being used.
This can probably have use in mining.
because it is an easy to use system. and the closed system of review might be part of why they are going iphone. it can be frustrating but the fact that apps are reviewed for quality control can be appealing to those that need such programs not to brick a phone etc. Also, this will NOT be a cheap app or device. This is not a toy. it is a professional program. Even if the app only costs like $5-10 you can bet the sensoring device will be at least a few hundred times that. they are going after fire departments looking for gas leaks, CSI type units, police, etc. not geeks in their basements watching reruns of Star Trek and the Original Battlestar
I developed this system for Jing Li.
We actually went with the iPhone because it is "cool", but as I developed further, that was a horrible mistake.
So, yes, the iphone part was a marketing gimmick
Actually this shows the awkwardness of the whole App Store/Approval system in many cases.
If you have a specialised program that is really only of use to your company and a small collection of customers, then you don't particularly want to put it out on the App Store.
And you don't want Apple's approval. Apple really has nothing to do with it. It's your in-house project.
You'd be better doing this stuff on WinMo. (And that's not meant to be flamebait.)
That's why they have the Enterprise Program:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/apply.html
There is an Enterprise program that lets companies create their own in-house apps. No idea if these apps need to be approved too though?
(Third attempt to break thru this damn comments system. grrr.)
What if you only have 20 people in your little tech company?
The Enterprise Program is for companies with staff of 500 or more people.
You don't *have* to approve your applications. You can use/test your application on up to 100 iPhones/iPod Touches (I think they use activation codes or the like for that -- not sure), which should be enough if it's only for 20 in-house folks :)
Nice.... Let me know when it is on the market.
its true, why iphone? no one can answer that, but you have to admit that its awesomely cool!
So, when you get sick and tired of the phone and toss it in your pool it tells you the chlorine level while it sinks?
i'm guessing they chose the iphone because either the developer(s) and/or the intended user(s) already have an iphone in the use?
Apple supports the distribution of apps that are meant to be used internally within an organization, as opposed to sold on the iTunes Store. Here's a good article about the Enterprise Developer Program: http://iphonecto.com/2009/09/09/deploying-internal-enterprise-application-iphone/
OK.. If Apple implements that small chemical sensor inside the iPhone for next generation iPhone, I'll pay ETF for my DROID and switch to iPhone. Instead of fart application, we would get fart tracker!!!
That chip has four separate sensors usable one at a time? Redundancy? Different parameters?
Imagine if they developed it for Android.
People could download this app to be used on a wireless bluetooth device connected via a netbook, UMPC, smart phone or any other new device running Android. Because it was running on an open platform, the military could literally develop this to whatever form factor they want.
Oh wait, this is about the iPhone.
Never mind.
If Google called it's OS Cyborg they would have had a Tricorder, but no. They had to side with Star Wars over the Trekkies, Fatal Error.
Data was an android.
They probably use the Unix aspects of OSX as Scientists on their desktop tasks, so they know OSX, why not develop for the iPhone assuming the OS is similar.
I understand all of the other objections, I'm not trying to address those... I agree.
What? Apple isnt running OSX and paying the Mac Premium. They are engineers not teenage girls.
I doubt their coders magically know Cocoa/ObjC because they may use unix/linux. If they want to code this for android or winmob then it would be trivial for them to do so.
Apple will reject itself one day.
But Zune has an OLED, and I can hook it up with an XBox. What the hell does NASA know anyway? Fanbois.
Yes, cause hooking your chemical sensor up to an Xbox 360 on a foreign planet is of the highest priority.
I can see why NASA would go iPhone/iPod Touch for this kind of application. First, with the Enterprise model, businesses do not need App approval. They can distribute their own. Second, the 3.0 OS's ability to interface with external device/peripherals requires far less development time than a similar customized WM pda.
Good eye NASA.
NASA turns iPhone into chemical sensor, can an App Store rejection be far away? ...
What rejection? ...
Engadget speculates and a few fools lacking in reading comprehension take the bait and accuse Apple of rejecting NASA. At least have some facts to back up your accusations.
Your sense of humor called, it's waiting for you to pick it up.....
you know if iPhone users are too stupid to figure out GoogleVoice (I'm not saying it Cupertino is so suck it) then there is no way this will pass the "will it confuse our users?" test.
So here's the bigger item on the table, we all know Apples opinion of it's users. Now we know NASA is one of those users. It does kind of put the moon bombing and the Mars Rover Crash into perspective. Maybe we should paint the shuttle yellow, and shorten it a bit. can hardly fault them for the bad lens on the Hubble now that you know they can't tell which application they are running.
Meanwhile at NASA:
Mission control tech: "Sir! The aliens are approaching but we thing we got the held back."
Mission commander: "What the hell are you talking about, we're trying to land the mars rover? What the hell? That's Space Invaders!!! That's not even your computer that's your Damn iPhone, what the hell is wrong with you people!?!?!"
in Apples defense all the morons have to do is change their password to be immune to the current virus, really can you even call that a virus? no wonder they want to ban jailbreaking, people aren't smart enough to use it.
The chemical sensor is not new, only interfacing it into an iPhone is... hardly news.
My favorite part - in the picture the phones status bar says 'No Service' - Yay AT&T!!!
What the hell is plugged into the headphone jack? Random cable to nowhere?
Lol no service.
man this is sooo star wars.. episode 1..
"Damn it, man, we're bloggers not scientists!"
Nice Star Trek reference.
I can see the iPhone commercials now. "If you want to know if terrorists released toxic chemicals or radiation into the air around you, there's an app for that!"
This is a good basic idea, I can see many applications that could use the Iphone as a rich easy to use information interface. Imagine a third party blue tooth temperature probe for example, for cooking around the kitchen, for monitoring a child's fever. etc. Maybe a UV clipon monitor for sun exposure, this is why the iphone hopefully(I see great potential) will be a more and more useful devise in our life other than just a phone. That is not to say I have concern about Apples approval process for application and third party products. I feel it should be more open. We as consumers should do as I do, and email apple with our concerns on products and apps that we feel should be included in the apple store.
While the idea to put a sensor in (put the name of a cellphone) is possible but the sensor himself is expensive. So, the marginal cost tfrom use a iphone versus to create a stand alone device is depreciable.
"- portable smoke detector"
So you'll hang your phone on the ceiling every night? B/c the lower it is, the less likely it is to detect smoke.
"- portable baby-poop detector"
You gonna go around detecting baby poop? And if its your baby what's wrong w/ the usual way?