On this page: http://www.physorg.com/news344.html

It states that the SniffEx device needs a 9 volt battery. Well why not attach it to an Active RFID Chip and put them inside of cargo containers, Air freight containers and over the road trucks. When they go by a scale they be pinged by the transponder unit as they enter the scale. At the port they would be pinged by a unit on the crane. When loading on an aircraft they would be pinged by a forklift mounted unit. When enroute at any time they could be pinged by a satellite, helicopter, over pass mounted unit? By sending in the energy to activate the little sensor instead of a battery which could go dead. Or mounted in a hand held unit or wall unit. They would always be there and could be checked at anytime?

This thought based on the press release on the website:

"SniffEx, developed by Thomas Thundat, Lal Pinnaduwage, Tony Gehl, Vassil Boiadjiev and Eric Hawk of ORNL; David Hedden of the University of Tennessee; Eric Houser of the Naval Research Laboratory; Linda Deel of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and Richard Lareau of the Transportation Security Administration

SniffEx is a compact, low-cost explosive vapor sensor for detecting and locating a variety of explosives, including plastic-based explosives. A micromechanical transducer, no wider than a human hair and with a mass of only a few nanograms, allows only explosive molecules to chemically adsorb to a sensor that can identify the molecule. SniffEx is an improvement over other explosive detection products (such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/surface acoustic wave devices) because of its sub-part-per-trillion sensitivity and high selectivity, direct vapor sensing, low power consumption (the instrument uses a 9-volt battery), less than one-second response time, stability, compact size, and low cost. SniffEx will have applications in counterterrorism, law enforcement, airport safety and humanitarian efforts such as landmine removal.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy."

Any comments would be appreciated.

Hi,

I think about several problems with feeding these sensors by RFID. First, how large RF coil should be to provide enough power to that chip. However, may be for
cargo containers, etc. it's not a problem.

Second, providing power supply througn RFID will mean that the device will be operational only when pinged by a satellite, helicopter,.. but it needes some time to analyze . Then a kind of battery (or capacitor) probably will be required.

But in general, I think the idea is not that preposterous.