It may not take long before we can sit in a room where it is possible to identify whether COVID-19 is in the air or not and if there are virus carriers among us or not. Soon, electronic devices may be able to identify the infection presence in a crowded space through a ceiling-mount device that depends on the body odour.
It was reported that British Scientists said they have developed a ceiling-mounted Covid “alarm” which can detect anyone infected in as little as 15 minutes.
According to the Sunday Times, the under-study device is slightly larger than a smoke alarm, and could be set up as a potential boon for screening in classrooms, aircraft cabins, care homes and offices.
The new invention comes as a fruit of early studies by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University. The experiments conducted till now have confirmed that the device has an accuracy degree of 98-100% making it as reliable as gold-standard PCR lab-based Covid-19 tests and considerably more because of the quick results.
Researchers made it clear that their research results are at an early stage as their work is paper-published but is still awaiting to be peer-reviewed
How does it work?
The sensor inside the machine, which is developed by Roboscientific, works through detection of chemicals present in breath or produced by skin of those infected by COVID-19.
The organic volatile compounds would create an odour that could be too subtle to be smelled by natural human nose. However, the “COVID alarm” paper suggested that such compounds could be detected by dogs, but the alarm would provide more accuracy in results.
According to Sunday Times, the alarm’s detectors would be able to find people infected with the virus even before they show symptoms. This would make it more effective and accurate than PCR tests.
The machine is designed to take 15-30 minutes to sample a room’s air and send results instantly to a recorded computer or mobile phone.
The research paper mentioned that at present, the sensors would cost £5,000 each.