Smartphones are getting smarter all the time and may soon incorporate molecular scanning technology to quickly analyze the chemical makeup of food and drugs.
Imagine, if you will, a moment in the not too distant future. Curious to know exactly what goes into the drug you take each morning, you aim your smartphone at one of those pills and within moments the phone delivers a detailed breakdown of the medication’s ingredients.
That future may be even closer than you think. If all goes as planned, a Chinese-made smartphone — the model H2 from Sichuan Changhong Electric Company Ltd. — equipped with a molecular scanner could be in your hands before the close of 2017. And it will become available to Chinese consumers by the middle of 2017, according to company announcements.
Molecular Identification Technology
While the phone itself comes from a Chinese electronics company, the molecular identification technology represents a collaboration between Israeli-based Consumer Physics Inc. and Analog Devices Inc., a U.S. firm based in Largo, Florida. The H2 uses the Israeli company’s SCIO molecular scanning device, which uses near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to carry out its analyses.
In February 2016, Consumer Physics and Analog Devices announced plans to collaborate on a sensor-to-cloud personal and industrial platform for the analysis of both liquids and solids, including foods, drugs, plants, chemicals, and the human body. The molecular sensor in the H2 smartphone represents one of the early fruits of that collaboration.
Can Spot Counterfeit Drugs
In the case of medications of dubious origin, such as purported generic Viagra sold online, the smartphone can determine whether these pills actually contain sildenafil citrate, the little blue pill’s active ingredient. The scanner would also indicate what, if any, other ingredients are in the pills, alerting consumers to substances that might possibly be toxic or otherwise hazardous to their health.
Changhong, as the Chinese company is best known to consumers, has been China’s largest manufacturer of televisions over the past two decades. Founded in 1958, Changhong was just the first of a number of partners for the molecular scanning technology being shopped around by Consumer Physics and Analog Devices, according to Consumer Physics CEO Dror Sharon.
Big Plans for SCIO
In announcing their collaboration, Consumer Physics and Analog Devices said that they envision embedding the SCIO technology in a wide array of devices and applications, including not just smartphones but wearables, as well as medical and industrial applications.
The H2 smartphone with its SCIO molecular sensor was first introduced in Las Vegas at CES 2017, the high-tech trade show that was held in early January. Changhong executives said at that time that they hoped to bring the phone to market in China by the middle of 2017. They projected an asking price of just over $430 on the Chinese market. While they hope to expand marketing of the phone to the United States and Europe by the end of the year, the phone’s prices in those markets have not yet been announced.
H2 Demonstrated in Vegas
In its debut at CES 2017, the H2’s material analysis capabilities were showcased for members of the press and others attending the trade show. In one such demonstration, company representatives showed how easily the phone’s SCIO sensor can detect the difference between a real Viagra tablet and a counterfeit.
In attendance at the Las Vegas trade show was Dean Takahashi, a writer for
VentureBeat.com. In his article about the H2, Takahashi said that the phone’s demo also picked which of two apples was the sweeter and quickly calculated the number of carbohydrates in a piece of cake.
The SCIO sensor that is incorporated into the H2 smartphone is also available from Consumer Physics as a stand-alone handheld device. The sensor in both the H2 and stand-alone form works essentially the same. The sensor includes a light source that can be used to illuminate the object to be analyzed as well as a spectrometer that collects the light reflected back from the object under analysis.
How the Spectrometer Works
According to the Consumer Physics website, the spectrometer “breaks down the light to its spectrum, which includes all the information required to detect the result of this interaction between the illuminated light and the molecules in the sample.” Until the advent of the SCIO technology, spectrometers were large and expensive and found almost exclusively in scientific laboratories. The SCIO sensor now puts this sophisticated technology within the reach of most consumers.
It’s not really surprising that the Changhong representatives demonstrating the phone chose to show its ability to distinguish between fake Viagra and the genuine article. Viagra [Link to HUB: What is the Best ED Treatment? The Experts Weigh In], the first of the new wave of oral ED drugs to hit the market in the late 1990s, is said to be the most widely counterfeited drug in the world.
Fake Viagra Widespread
Fake Viagra confiscated by customs authorities in countries around the world has been found to contain filler materials and coloring agents that are potentially toxic. In some cases, these counterfeit drugs actually contain sildenafil citrate, Viagra’s active ingredient, but either too little to be truly effective or too much and possibly hazardous to the health of anyone using them.
If you would like to purchase genuine FDA-approved Viagra — or another popular impotence drug — from a reliable online supplier, consider using eDrugstore.com, a member of the U.S.-based Secure Medical family of online drugstores. To learn more about the properties of these various medications and possibly place an order, click here on Erectile Dysfunction.
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