HOUSTON—
The next time you're at the airport, imagine being able to avoid long security lines before your flight. It could happen soon. A University of Houston scientist is working on screening sensors that could reduce those long waits, and this professor has spent countless hours finding out what the sensors can really do.Nobody likes to hurry up and wait at the airport. The lines are long and it takes a lot of work and time getting through the security check points. But a chemistry professor at UH may have come up with a way to make those airport lines move faster.
"We want short lines. It does work," said Dr. Rigoberto Advincula, who's a professor in the college of natural sciences and mathematics and college of engineering at UH. "The question really is can we really make it portable enough for people to use it in a very practical way?"
Dr. Advincula and his research staff have developed a sensor that he said could work in airports and so many other places. A sensor that may dramatically change how people and things are searched in the near future, and a hand-held scanner that works off a process of cooked molecules.
"We first design the molecules that go around the light or the bad chemical, and then we electro deposit this on a gold surface. Now the gold surface can then be used for portable devices," said Dr. Advincula.
"We cook by design."
It may sound complicated, but it could simplify the way a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent scans for explosives or how a chef checks your food.
"In principal you have your iPhone and you have a spot there where you drop a solution or drop a part of your meal or soup in that device, and then instantly you get a read out whether that soup is stale or not," said Dr. Advincula. "A TSA employee [for example] can just wand that device in front of you or collect some samples from on your luggage or your clothing, wipe it on a sensor surface and they'll get that information right away."
Dr. Advincula said one of the biggest potential customers would be the military.
"One example is that of testing chemical agents or testing things that are pathogenic for biological or chemical warfare. So a soldier, for example, has the reliability in the field using a test kit based on strip sensors. The goal is to make it reliable, fast and inexpensive."
And at UH, the foundation may be set as we scan into the future, and possibly get to our next airport flight a bit sooner.
According to Dr. Advincula, a hand-held device could hit the market in the next three of four years. That device would range from around $4,000 to $5,000.
