Box to replace drug-sniffing canines?
 |
Computer chip used in machine developed by Georgia Tech that can detect trace amounts of cocaine
Story Tools
|
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A new invention can sniff like a dog, find drugs like a dog and help police catch criminals like a dog.
One day soon, the so-called "Dog on a Chip" may replace the police officer's best friend -- the K-9 drug dog.
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a machine that can instantly sniff out cocaine and other illegal drugs without the hassle of feeding, training and interpreting a police dog.
"This works the same way as the dogs," said Bill Hunt, the electrical engineering professor heading the project. "This is what the dogs are doing. They're picking up on the vapors coming off the cocaine."
From a few feet away, the device can smell microscopic amounts of a drug -- as little as one-trillionth of a gram. So far it's only programmed to detect cocaine. But Hunt says it eventually could be developed to sniff out other drugs, anthrax, bombs, chemical agents and even cancerous cells.
The machine is a rectangular plastic box slightly smaller than a phone book attached to a cube with two antenna-looking tubes coming out of it. These tubes are the machine's nose -- they suck in and spit out air.
Inside the cube is a computer chip that measures when a substance such as cocaine is present. To improve accuracy, the device also uses protein-based antibodies that bind with cocaine molecules, essentially boosting the signal.
A handheld, in-the-field model of the machine hasn't been created yet. But Hunt envisions a 6-by-4-inch rectangle that could light up or make a beeping sound when cocaine is present.
A report on the machine was published this month in the academic journal Analytical Chemistry, written by Hunt and graduate students D.D. Stubbs and Sang-Hun Lee.
Electronic nose technologies have been around since the 1980s, but so far, none has been as sensitive as a dog's nose.
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
