Implementation of a microscopic data communication system using chemical signals
A team of Canadian and UK researchers successfully transferred the test phrase "O CANADA" from a transmitter to a receiver using chemical signals in alcohol.
( Isopropyl alcohol is widely used as a solvent and a cleaning fluid,as well as in rubbing alcohol products.)
The experiment used Arduino computers,an electronic spray to release the alcohol,fans to blow the alcohol along,and sensors for detecting the chemical signals & demodulating them back into text.
For Transmitter: Arduino Uno microcontroller board
For Receiver: Another Arduino board.It was linked to a custom-made PCB board on which 3 alcohol sensors were mounted.They all use a metal oxide semiconductor detection layer to detect the alcohol.
For text entry: Adafruit 16*2-character LCD Shield Kit that has six push buttons. Programmed using ITA2 code,which uses 5 bits to represent each letter in the alphabet.
Also designed an electrical switch board to hook up the transmitter with a DuroBlast electronic spray,which has a battery-operated electrical pump,Programming the microcontroller board let them control the duration of the sprays.
Spray duration was set to 100ms.The apparatus sprayed alcohol every 3 seconds when the bit at the beginning of the spray duration was 1; when it was 0 the apparatus would not emit spray.
According to researchers,it is one of very few implementations of molecular communication at any dimension...
