It could advance our daily lives if it were integrated directly into portable devices. “Imagine that the next generation of our smartphones could have hyperspectral cameras.”
Opening up possibilities
The advanced cameras could be used for analysis.
“It’s exciting that our spectrometer opens up possibilities for all sorts of new everyday gadgets and instruments to do new science, as well as new research.”
Currently, spectrometers are being tested in medicine for their ability to identify differences between tumors and healthy tissue, as they can easily pick up on subtle changes in tissue.
Environmental monitoring case uses can use spectrometers to detect pollution in the air, water or ground and how much of it is there.
“It would be great if we could get low-cost, portable spectrometers to do this work for us,” he said. In the educational setting, the hands-on teaching of science concepts would be more effective with inexpensive, compact analyzers.
