Technology, especially medical technology, has come a very long way from way back in the day where you would need to visit a hospital or see a specialist for certain things. These days, our smartwatches come with heart rate sensors, blood oxygen sensors, and even ECG monitors, and in the future, our smartphones might also be able to detect COVID-19.
This is thanks to the work of the researchers over at General Electric, who have recently been awarded a National Institute of Health grant that would see them further the development of sensors that could be embedded in smartphones, which in turn could be used to detect things like COVID-19.
According to the research team, they boast that their sensors have the same detection capabilities as larger analytical instruments that one might find in a lab. They also claim that their sensors are sensitive enough where it will be capable of isolating virus particles without interference from other elements.
Don’t expect to see it anytime soon though, because the team will be spending the next couple of years refining and improving the tech, and even then, it’s not necessarily a guarantee that handset makers will be adopting it. However, it does show the possibilities of such tech, where our phones in the future might be able to warn us to the presence of dangerous biological substances in the air.
Filed in . Read more about Coronavirus, Covid-19, Ge and Health. Source: engadget