Low cost ‘smart mask’ can detect disease from breath, researchers say
Scientists say they have created a “smart mask” that can analyse the wearer’s breath and detect tell-tale signs of disease.
Researchers hope the device – which can beam its data to an app over Bluetooth – will offer an affordable and convenient way to capture and immediately analyse breath biomarkers related to respiratory and metabolic processes.
They say it has the potential to improve efforts to diagnose conditions such as lung disease early and to monitor conditions and support tailored treatment plans.
“Our technology can serve as a general breath analysis platform. We can choose different sensors for a specific condition or a fusion of sensors for a variety of conditions,” said Prof Wei Gao, senior author of the research, from the California Institute of Technology.
“For example, the mask we evaluated in this work can simultaneously monitor kidney conditions as well as airway inflammation in COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and asthma.”
