Cellphone sensor could test for COVID-19 in people and on surfaces, researchers say

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/coronavirus/article242646951.html



BY HAYLEY FOWLER

MAY 11, 2020 02:17 PM, UPDATED 41 MINUTES AGO

Lack of testing has plagued the U.S. since the onset of COVID-19 — but researchers are working to change that.

An electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Utah is working to develop a portable senor about the size of a quarter that can detect the coronavirus in people, on surfaces and possibly even “in floating microscopic particles in the air,” according to a university news release.

“It can be made to be a standalone device, but it can also be connected to a cellphone,” the professor, Massood Tabib-Azar, said in the release. “Once you have it connected either wirelessly or directly, you can use the cellphone software and processor to give a warning if you have the virus.”

Tabib-Azar initially developed the technology to test for the Zika virus, according to the release.

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Hmm... 🤞

[iemitsu]

1. Hope this works.

If it does Trump will try to destroy it.

[Hugin]

3. If Orange Julius Caesar can't figure out a way to skim profits off it first.

But, yeah, he'll eventually turn it to crap.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. I expect such a gadget to be extremely unreliable

No news I can find on how his Zika thingy is doing, despite it being a year since he got a grant.

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1931100

[Takket]

4. This sounds pretty suspect to me

I feel like if a cell phone attachment could pick up a virus such technology would have been sold long ago.

[Merlot]

5. I could see it possibly working on surfaces or in the air, but not inside people.