Our phones were an integral part of the fight against COVID-19 through testing and detection systems that helped contain the virus in places like South Korea and Taiwan. Now, scientists are again using smartphones to identify coronavirus particles on surfaces as an additional line of defense against the pandemic, along with more powerful treatments such as vaccines and antiviral drugs. Researchers from General Electric have received a National Institutes of Health grant to develop small sensors that can be embedded in mobile devices to detect the presence of COVID-19 nanoparticles.
The team behind the miniature technology claims that it has the same detection capability as much larger analytical instruments you would normally find in a laboratory. After a decade of experimentation, they claim that they can refine the little thing to isolate virus particles without interference by other elements.
“Our sensors are like bloodhounds,” said Radislav Potyrailo, a senior scientist at GE Research. “We train them to track down a specific thing, and they can do it well without being thrown off the track by anything else.”
With the help of the award, the team will now spend the next two years refining their sensor at their fingertips, hoping to place it in devices in the future – ranging from phones to smartwatches to wall accessories. While there is no guarantee that the technology will make it into iPhones and Android devices, it’s easy to imagine how it could be used as an added protection against nasty viruses. The hope is that one day we can all whip up our phones to look for COVID-19 or flu particles at airports, shops, ATMs and at home.