HotSpot Episode 24: iPhone Biosensor Detects Toxins, Bacteria, & Viruses
In this week’s episode of WDD’s HotSpot, brought to you by Memory Protection Devices :
- Canary  has developed a smart home security device  that is controlled from an iPhone or Android. Containing an HD video camera and multiple sensors that track everything from motion, temperature and air quality to vibration, sound, and activity, the Canary alerts users, wherever they may be, when it senses anything out of the ordinary — from sudden temperature changes that can indicate a fire, to the sound and movement that could mean an intrusion.
- Saelig  has announced the Telemakus USB range of USB controlled RF products. Using any Windows PC and a USB hub, multiple TelemakusUSB RF modules can be connected and controlled to build up a complex system of RF functions that include switches, attenuators, amplifiers, signal generators, vector modulators, phase shifters, frequency doublers, and power detectors. These innovative modules leverage the enormous power and capabilities of the PC. Each module has its own flash memory and microprocessor, so the calibration parameters for each device are stored internally.
- Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  have developed a cradle and app  that uses the iPhone’s built-in camera and processing power as a bio sensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses, and other molecules. As the article states, “Having such sensitive biosensing capabilities in the field could enable on-the-spot tracking of groundwater contamination, combine the phone’s GPS data with biosensing data to map the spread of pathogens, or provide immediate and inexpensive medical diagnostic tests in field clinics or contaminant checks in the food processing and distribution chain.”
- The European Space Agency  is set to communicate with a NASA  moon orbiter later this year using a new space laser communication system . During the past several decades, the volume of data from NASA’s missions has increased exponentially and is expected to continue at even greater rates. With the radio and microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum getting close to capacity, laser communications will enable NASA to work within a new, less crowded section of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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