Researchers from the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech, a startup founded by the same research group, have unveiled a fundamentally new type of optical spectrometer that delivers laboratory-grade precision in a device small enough to be embedded in portable and wearable technologies. By rethinking how spectra are measured and processed, the team has demonstrated a spectrometer costing only around $10, operating at a centimeter scale, and capable of applications ranging from industrial quality control to real-time health care monitoring.
  • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
    91·
    5 hours ago

    The chemical sensors on my smart watching begging me to stop dipping my hand into the unknown chemical bucket at work.

  • TropicalDingdongEnglish
    29·
    11 hours ago

    All jokes aside, this is super exciting if you are interested in instrumentation for environmental monitoring.

    • EvilBitEnglish
      22·
      11 hours ago

      All I’m hearing is “tricorder on the way”

  • DrakeAlbrechtEnglish
    222·
    12 hours ago

    Unlike conventional spectrometers, which rely on dispersing light or algorithmic reconstruction to recover spectra, the convolutional spectrometer physically performs a convolution operation on the incoming light. This is achieved using a simple cascade of optical components with periodic spectral responses, such as unbalanced Mach–Zehnder interferometers or micro-ring resonators.

    Is this thing a spectrometer or a fucking turbo encabulator?

    • davadEnglish
      20·
      12 hours ago

      I’ve worked with spectrometers and on spectrometry design before, and that quote from the article is intelligible. It’s also pretentious and poorly explained.

      • fonix232@fedia.io
        1·
        13 minutes ago

        I’ve never worked with spectrometers but physics and chemistry were some of my strongest subjects, so it made some sense to me - but the sentence was definitely written with the intent to say “look peons, I know big science words you do not, and I can string them into a sentence you’ll question the legibility of”.

  • davadEnglish
    12·
    11 hours ago

    The writing in the linked article is a little weird, as others have pointed out. However the journal publication is very cool. If this is reproducible, it’ll likely have a noticeable impact over the next 10 years or so. We won’t see $10 spectrometers, but we might see handheld ones in a similar format to the cheap IR cameras.

    Here’s the link for anyone interested.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-026-01891-6

  • icerunner_origin@startrek.websiteEnglish
    152·
    12 hours ago

    such as unbalanced Mach–Zehnder interferometers or micro-ring resonators

    It has a base-plate of prefamulated amulite surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing, aligned in such a way that the 2 main spurving bearings are in-line with the pentameter fan.

    • DrakeAlbrechtEnglish
      141·
      12 hours ago

      The spectrometer knows where it is, because it knows where it isn’t.