A bad-smell sensing network using gas detector tubes and mobile phone cameras

A bad-smell sensing network using gas detector tubes and mobile phones having digital cameras is developed in this study. Our bad-smell sensing network is constructed easily using the communication function of the mobile phone. The new system not only detects toluene, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide gases at low concentration, about a few tens of ppb, but also detects multi-component gases. As a case of study, the temporal change of xylene gas concentration at a paint factory was measured. Moreover, measurement of the gas distribution of ammonia was performed. The gas distribution change dependent on the concentration at the source was clearly observed by using our developed bad-smell sensor network.