Scientists at MIT and Harvard have allegedly been working to develop special face masks that would glow upon detecting the novel coronavirus.
As the Evening Standard reported, the proposed technology would make the detection of the killer bug much easier whereas people could be diagnosed on the spot.
According to the reports, the researchers are attempting to design COVID-19 detection masks based on previous technology used to detect Zika and Ebola.
As the scientists hope, they will be able to merge coronavirus sensors with the face masks whereas a signal would be triggered when the person who breathes, coughs, or sneezes at the mask is infected.
“As we open up our transit system, you could envision it being used in airports as we go through security, as we wait to get on a plane,” Jim Collins, the lead of the project, said in an interview with Business Insider.
“You or I could use it on the way to and from work. Hospitals could use it for patients as they come in or wait in the waiting room as a pre-screen of who’s infected.”
While the lead admitted the project was still in its early stages, he suggested that the results so far have been nothing but promising.
“Once we’re in that stage, then it would be a matter setting up trials with individuals expected to be infected to see if it would work in a real-world setting,” Collins added.
As the researcher explained, the sensors in the mask are being designed to trigger upon detecting the virus’s genetic sequence in the moisture provided by a wearer’s breath or cough.
Then, within a few hours, the masks would set off a fluorescent signal that could be picked up by affordable devices known as fluorimeters.
Alternatively, the scientists are also hoping to make the signals color-changing so that they could be detected by the naked eye.
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Replaced!