Breath_Intelligence · A portable handheld system for the monitoring of breath compounds related to metabolism and oral hygiene

“Breath Intelligence” is a portable handheld system for the monitoring of breath compounds. With such a system health conscientious individuals will be able to gain information about their metabolism and oral hygiene almost anytime and anywhere by simply collecting a small sample of their breath.Currently, breath analysis for metabolic markers is performed in medical laboratories using gas chromatography machines. These are highly complex and non-portable machines. Therefore breath analysis, even though of increasing interest for health and metabolic monitoring, is still limited to the medico-laboratory domain, which is not accessible on a day-to-day basis. This leads to particular interest in the development of reliable portable breath monitoring systems that can be used outside of a clinical setting, such as at home or during an activity.MICROSENS has been working on the realization of “Breath Intelligence” in the recent years and the current functional prototype has been shown to selectively detect acetone – an indicator for the metabolization of fatty acids – among other compounds in human breath. The measurement principle is based on simplified gas chromatography and the heart of the system is a small measurement unit, which combines a highly sensitive semiconductor gas sensor with a micro-fabricated gas separation column. The chromatography based approach permits to rapidly scan for multiple breath compounds with one single system. By combining the functionality of multiple “simple” breath analyzers into one system our chromatography based gas analyzer presents a unique multifunctional tool for personalized breath analysis, which allows a more holistic view of a person’s metabolism.In order to bring “Breath Intelligence” to the market, a first stage will be the investigation of the technical and practical feasibility as well as economic viability of the product, which will be the focus of this project (SME Instruments Phase 1).