Mini sensors open a new world of product information

Consumers could soon be carrying miniature sensors in their smartphones that can analyse the freshness of fruit and vegetables in the supermarket, thanks to a licensing deal between The University of Western Australia and private firm Panorama Synergy.

After over a decade of research, UWA’s Microelectronics Research Group (MRG) has developed a spectrometer sensor potentially small enough to fit into a smartphone.

The head of MRG, Professor Lorenzo Faraone, said the tiny sensor uses light to analyse the properties of different objects.

“Infrared spectroscopy already has many uses — the grains industry uses it to determine the quality and value of crops, the pharmaceutical industry uses it for raw materials testing and quality control, and there are many other applications in industries as diverse as oil and gas, medical diagnostics, defence and security,” he said.

“Those applications, however, require expensive laboratory-grade instruments and that is set to change with the UWA Microspectrometer.

“It is a MEMS device, manufactured using cleanroom processes developed for the electronics industry and hence can be mass produced at very low cost.

“This change effectively takes spectroscopy from laboratory-based scientific and industrial uses and places it in the hands of consumers and commercial users for field-portable applications.”

Professor Faraone said that the sensor could be fitted to smartphones, allowing shoppers to check the freshness of their fruit, vegetables and meat in real time just by pointing their phone at the product in a fresh food section.

“It could also be used in drones to help search for minerals in the ground or to identify water around crops and for a multitude of other innovative commercial applications,” Professor Faraone said.

He said the potential of the technology has long been recognised by several US and Australian defence organisations as well as the Grains Research and Development Corporation, resulting in research funding of more than $10 million over the past decade.