UOW’s role in ‘sensoring’ the future

Mar 03, 2006

Within 10 years diabetics may be able to test their blood sugar levels with their mobile phone and chemical warfare attacks could be predicted and prevented within minutes.

These are features of a rapidly emerging and revolutionary technology that will be made possible because of the introduction of small, simple ‘chemo/bio sensors’ that are set to have an unrivalled impact on the world.

Leading the way in autonomous sensor networks research is Professor Dermot Diamond from Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland. Professor Diamond recently visited UOW to attend the official opening of the $12m Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science on campus where he consolidated an important research partnership with the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) headed by Professor Gordon Wallace.

The sensors will allow people, places and objects from anywhere on the planet to be tracked, checked and monitored as they move through the environment.

“These sensors will be able to monitor the quality of air, rivers and lakes for example,” said Professor Diamond.

“At the moment this is done by sampling units or sending people out for testing and having them report back to a lab for analysis. This will soon be a thing of the past as bio sensors will be able to measure the environment around it on a semi-continuous basis and provide an ongoing source of information.”

A provisional patent application was filed last week to protect a new intellectual property that has been co-developed at both institutions relating to the ‘bender sensor’.

“As wonderful as these sensors are…they have flaws. In order to measure biology some part of the sensor device must be exposed to the ‘real world’ and this can create what we call drift or noise. The sensors can give changing signals and we won’t know whether the device itself is wearing down or if it is the environment,” Professor Diamond said.

“We have errors like false positives where the data might tell us a massive plume of acid is heading for Wollongong when it isn’t. And false negatives where it really is heading this way and the sensor is sleeping!

“These bender sensors are just that – they have bendable heads so we can get them to lift their head above trees or immerse themselves in a lake,” Professor Wallace said.

“These bender sensors can go in and do our work for us -- find out what the problem is, where it has happened and why...and action can be taken straight away.”

One of the main attractions of the bender sensor is that it requires very little energy and can run for thousands of hours on a small watch battery. It is also a fraction of the cost to run.

“We’re also looking at solar energy -- sensors that create their own energy. We want to go beyond batteries. We want to create novel energy conversion storage systems. Because it’s all about keeping these devices alive.”

Both academics say this technology is advancing at a rapid rate and will have the same impact that the internet and mobile phone did 10 years ago. The sensor technology will also have massive implications for the health system. And for those who don’t already have it attached to the hip, the mobile phone will become a vital source of sensing and detection.

“Basically individuals will be able to sensorise themselves,” said Professor Diamond. Sensors will be wearable and will be able to monitor heartbeat, pulse and breathing. Patient progress will be able to be monitored with the aim to keep more people out of hospital because they can be remotely tracked.

"It’s all very exciting -- Wollongong is very well networked and there are some incredibly talented people working on this research.”

A number of research links have been established with institutions in Europe and the US and an ongoing exchange of UOW and DCU staff and students is creating a stronger partnership each year.

For further information: contact Professor Gordon Wallace on (02) 4221 3127

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128