The University of Utah has Possibly Developed a Simple Sensor based accessory that works with a Smartphone to Self-Test for COVID-19
A Fox 13 Salt Lake City TV report last week revealed that the University of Utah has been working on a way to detect Coronavirus with a simple sensor smartphone accessory device and app. A user would only have to cough or breathe on a sensor device to get a quick result for COVID-19. What started off at the University as a device to help detect a completely different virus, it could now be reset for tracking COVID-19.
Massood Tabib-Azar, the lead engineer working on this project said, "We started this project about 12 months ago, and the main idea was to enable people to have their own personal sensors to detect Zika in places that they travel."
The plan is to take the Zika virus sensor and program it to identify COVID-19 instead.
"Our prototype is going to be around the size of a quarter and it would be communicating with a cell phone using Bluetooth," said Tabib-Azar.
Researchers say if someone were to breathe, cough, sneeze, or blow on the sensor, it would be able to tell if someone had COVID-19.
If the virus is present, the DNA strands in the sensor would bind to the virus' proteins and electrical resistance is measured in the device, signaling a positive result. The results would then be displayed on a smartphone within 60 seconds.
The website 'Metro' in the UK also covered this development earlier today here.
While this device sounds promising, the time to market for such an accessory device could be lengthy due to required FDA approvals and finding a reliable accessory device maker to back it so as to secure delivery, reliability and mass distribution. Then again, if Apple were to be interested in aiding in the development and promoting such a device, it would be on the market much faster.
Best of luck to Massood Tabib-Azar and his team in getting this to market in a timely way.
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