4 ms·
Mechanical collection followed by manual inspection, often through a microscope. This being HN, "a prime candidate for disruption via cloud-based deep learning
by dalke 11y ago
Mechanical collection followed by manual inspection, often through a microscope. This being HN, "a prime candidate for disruption via cloud-based deep learning methods." ;)
Mold testing is hard to research because there are no standards. As http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=920 http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati... comments, "http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=920" http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicati...
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-safety/tips/how-to-test-for-toxic-mold4.htm http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-saf... goes on to say that "Consumer Reports conducted an evaluation of home mold testing kits in 2006, and none of the four kits they looked at received a recommendation. The problems ranged from the kits having no expiration dates, potentially compromising the results, to being difficult to use"
One solution seems to be to lead the mold spores land on a Petri dish, incubate the dish, and inspect to see what grows. The non-professional solution is to use one's nose to check if anything smells moldy.
Pollen count is also done by manual inspection, in this case by inspection of the pollen grains. See http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1389497/ http://www.wral.com/weather/blogpost/1389497/ . At http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations/start-a-station.aspx http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stati... you can see how people get certified to be a pollen counter: "A counter will receive a pollen slide with instruction sheet. The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB and graded. Pollen certification will be given if the pollen grains have been counted correctly."
It then goes on with mold counter: "A counter will receive a mold slide with instruction sheet. The slide and completed score sheet is returned to the NAB and graded. Mold certification will be given if the spores have been counted correctly."
- philip1209 11y agoAre spectroscopic methods possible, or are the particles too heterogeneous?
- dalke 11y agoNo clue. Went to PubMed and searched for "pollen spectra". Found http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4395086/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4395086/ from PLoS One, 2015 Apr 13: > Aeroallergen monitoring networks are an important part of treatment strategies, but unfortunately traditional analysis is time consuming and expensive. We have explored the use of infrared spectroscopy of pollen and spores for an inexpensive and rapid characterization of aeroallergens. They think it's doable.
- kaybe 11y agoMaybe checking the scattering pattern would work (scattering phase function), there are already detectors for that. I don't know whether there is a database of patterns already available, but it could be possible. The corresponding field would be aerosol physics.
- niels_olson 11y agoI wonder if flow cytometry would work? Have a venturi on mild suction, designed to flow a jacket layer around the perimeter, and a laser to detect forward and side scatter. That gives you size and complexity. That plus location, time, wind, and season could probably give you a very useful signal. If not in the home, certainly if the data was sent to central system, a la weather stations.
- sitkack 11y agoI'd like to see a cmos imager, multispectral light source and a spherical microscope integrated into a single package. Like a cellphone camera module, but as a bonafide microscope. A way to purge the system would be nice as well (ultrasonic phased array, heated compressed air (nichrome wire, sealed can, one way valve)) ? My use case is a water purification system that will tell you the exact pathogen count before and after purification/sterilization. Hopefully this statement makes it non-patentable.
- rlpb 11y ago> Hopefully this statement makes it non-patentable. I don't think so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_inv...