Soon, smartphones that will sniff out life-threatening disorders

Experts are developing a new technology that would enable smartphones to screen their users' breath for life-threatening diseases.

JERUSALEM: Experts are developing a new technology that would enable smartphones to screen their users' breath for life-threatening diseases.

A research consortium headed by professor Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is developing a product that, when coupled with a smartphone, will be able to screen the user's breath. The SNIFFPHONE project will link Haick's breathalyzer screening technology to the smartphone to provide non-invasive, fast and cheap disease detection.

It will work by using microand nano-sensors that read exhaled breath and then transfer the information through the attached mobile phone to an information-processing system for interpretation."Early diagnosis can save lives, particularly in life-threatening diseases like cancer," said Haick.