I-Corps: Air Quality Monitoring Based on Digital Inline Holography

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to define the requirements for the development of a new generation of indoor air quality monitors based on digital inline holography (DIH). The physical pollutant monitoring segment in the global air quality monitoring market is around $1 billion and is projected to grow rapidly amid and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed DIH monitor may identify pollutant types in addition to pollutant counts and size distribution. The proposed DIH sensor also has a compact design that may be used as wearable/portable devices or that may be easily integrated into filtration systems both in home and automobiles for smart control. The proposed technology may be further expanded for monitoring and characterization of particles in a broad range of applications, including monitoring: outdoor airborne particles, particles suspended in water, particle characterization in atomization and sprays, particle processing, and high throughput cellular analysis in biomedical applications.This I-Corps project explores the translation of machine learning-based digital inline holography (DIH). A highly compact 3D imaging sensor may perform real-time, in situ measurements of size distributions, shape, concentration, and other physical properties of particles (e.g., droplets, bubbles, dusts, cells, etc.) from 200 nm to ~1 mm. The proposed technology may serve as a platform technology that may be applied to monitor air quality. The DIH sensor may be used to monitor a wide range of airborne pollutants including physical pollutants (e.g., smoke, smog, dust, etc.) and biological pollutants (e.g., pollen, dust mites, house dust, animal dander, etc.)distinguishing particulate pollutants types based on particle shapes. At the conclusion of the project, the goal is to identify the requirements for air pollutant monitoring applications and the need for this technology in the broader particle diagnostic community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.