Neural Optical Sensor for Countering the Proliferation of Biological and Chemical Weapons

Physical Optics Corporation (POC)s proposes to develop a neural-optical sensor for biological and chemical (""NOSBC"") weapons, with vapor detection capability. The system will comprise a sensor head and a signal processing/display unit. The NOSBC will simultaneously perform multiple immunoassays with a one-second sensor response time; it will apply biometic fuzzy metrology to these parallel signals, obtained from samples preconcentrated by at least two orders of magnitude over ambient abundance, and will have parts-per-trillion (ppt) sensitivity to biological and chemical weapon vapors and extremely high immunity to false alarms. POC's NOSBC system will exceed the performance of the best chemical sensors now available. Chemical and biological vapors and particles are important causes of human disease (e.g.,tuberculosis and influenza). Allergies caused by bacterial particles are also of major importance. The potential, commercial markets for the proposed system are environmental monitoring, clinical diagnosis, drug and medical monitoring, anti-terrorism, law enforcement, and aviation safety.