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
Isn't this a mod iProRecorder ?
http://www.iprorecorder.com/
Ha!
Probably cost as much as those $30K toilet seats.
In the end, should have went USB with a CANBUS interface (they're cheap -n- plenty) instead of a 'custom board'.
So NASA will cut out the Escape Pod funding ($50 million and it would have been done) to spend time on THIS?! >_< I hope Apple rejects them with the sole reason of "being retarded with our tax money".
i'm sure you are aware that NASA has several non Space Program labs that have the sole purpose of using tech developed by the SP for 'real world' applications. just as the military shifts things they originally created for combat into other uses (the Internet being the biggest). And these programs have their own money supplies some of which is privately endowed
Also, all it takes is one fire department saving a few dozen folks from a gas leak due to this device for folks to say it was not a waste of money
hmmmmm.... seems to me even NASA can't get service?
g
Yes, in the buildings at AMES, there are hardly any signal for ATT. On top of the bad signals and highly restricted iphone interfaces, i am going have to consider other platforms. It would be interesting to play around with the Droid.
Thanks for your comments, George. It's always great to get an inside view into stories like this!
I hope you'll share any other projects like this with us in the future.
George Yu,
You guys made a good decision. Don’t listen to all these idiots. They’re probably implemented spies for other platforms.
You didn’t only picked the iPhone because it’s “cool”, you picked the iPhone because it’s :
1-well know and well distributed worldwide.
2- Millions and millions sold worldwide whether it’s jailbroken or not.
3- The hardware capabilities are unlimited and the sky is the limit.
4- Almost yearly new design equipped with new upgraded hardware comes to reality and sees the sun.
5- The iPhone’s sleek design and durability make it on top of line; “Cool” as you described it.
The only two problems that come with this nice package are:
1- The worst carrier ever, AT&T. I can’t wait for Verizon’s iPhone.
2- The most conceited company ever, Apple.
Please, pursue this project with the iPhone regardless of what these people are saying. If NASA gets the approval from Appstore then this will open the door for more creative ideas. I doubt they reject the app. They become more soft recently after they messed up with Google and the Nokia lawsuit.
If this new external hardware is going to detect H2S and CO2 levels then I’m going to be the first one to buy but don’t forget to make it affordable…;)
Some apps such as ZipCar, Viper, Rev…etc are using the iPhone to the core so why not NASA…..
Good Luck….!!
It's also far from straightforward to develop hardware (and even software) for the iPhone if you want to go the legal, non-jailbreaky route. Apple is not friendly to outside development. It's just a wonder so much as happened with the iPhone. It's not because of Apple, it is in SPITE of Apple. I can completely understand their thinknig that it was a good idea to start developing the iPhone, but then later finding out it is a terrible idea.
I don't know how hard it is to develop hardware and associated software for another platform, like Android. Of course, there are multiple phones that use Android, not just one like with the iPhone OS.
Amazing that the interface is identical to the Alesis Protrack's. I guess it detects the presence of BS marketing too.
Yeah. Right down to the button icons. On the face of it, this looks like pretty blatant interface design theft.
Apple needs to contact George Li (and Joe Hewitt) to try and work out why there platform selection was a 'horrible mistake" and fix it.. otherwise they're going to blow their huge lead.
sorry -- George Yu.