PSZ 19:16 (Pind.

1/07)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF THESIS / UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT PAPER AND COPYRIGHT
Authors full name : Date of birth Title : : AHMAD SAFWAN BIN AHMAD KAMIL MAY 26 1990 ANDROID E-NOSE 2011/2012

Academic Session :

I declare that this thesis is classified as:

CONFIDENTIAL RESTRICTED

(Contains confidential information under the Official Secret Act 1972)* I declare that I have read this work and in (Contains restricted information as specified by the organisation where research was done)* access (full text)

my opinion this work is adequate in terms of scope

OPEN ACCESS I agree my thesis to be published and quality for the purpose ofthat awarding a Bachelors Degreeas ofonline open

Engineering (Electrical-Medical Electronics

I acknowledged that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia reserves the right as follows: 1. The thesis is the property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 2. The Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has the right to make copies for the Signature : .. purpose of research only. 3. The Library has the right to make copies of Mitra the thesis for academic exchange. Name of Supervisors : Mrs. bt Mohd Addi

Date

:
Certified by :

SIGNATURE

SIGNATURE OF SUPERVISOR

900526-08-5023 (NEW IC NO. /PASSPORT NO.) Date : JUNE 2012

PN. MITRA MOHD ADDI NAME OF SUPERVISOR Date : JUNE 2012

NOTES :

If the thesis is CONFIDENTIAL or RESTRICTED, please attach with the letter from the organisation with period and reasons for confidentiality or restriction.

I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my opinion this thesis is sufficient i n terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Medical Electronics)

Signature: Name of Supervisor: PN. MITRA BINTI MOHD ADDI Date: 15TH JUNE 2012

ANDROID E-NOSE

AHMAD SAFWAN BIN AHMAD KAMIL

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Medical Electronics)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

June 2012

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I declare that the thesis entitled Android E-Nose is the result of my own research except as cited in the references. The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently in candidature of any other degree.

Signature: Name Date : AHMAD SAFWAN BIN AHMAD KAMIL : 15TH JUNE 2012

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To my beloved parents Ahmad Kamil bin Osman and Supina binti Othman

My sister, Nur Haziqah binti Ahmad Kamil

Dedicated in thankful appreciation for your Doa, support and encouragement

I could not have successfully completed this journey without any one of you.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillah. Thanks to Allah S.W.T, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful for giving me the opportunity to pursue education at a higher level and for being able to complete the project on time. In preparing the thesis, Ive come across many people who have helped me a lot. Firstly, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Pn. Mitra binti Mohd Addi, for her encouragement, supervision, guidance, critics, funding, and advice throughout the accomplishment of the project. Thanks for being patient with me all the time.

I would also take this opportunity to convey a special thanks to Dr. Fauzan Khairi Che Harun for offering invaluable assistance in supporting me towards the completion of the project. Dr. Fauzan has been giving many ideas and technical suggestions in developing the Android E-Nose.

My sincere appreciation extends to all my undergraduate friends who have helped and shared brilliant ideas throughout the whole year.

Not to forget, a special thanks to my father and mother who have been continuously supporting me to complete the project. Without their doa, help and support, this project would not be have been completed. Finally, I would like to dedicate my deepest appreciation to all SEP members of batch 2008-2012 that have always been encouraging, supporting and helping me directly and indirectly throughout the journey.

ABSTRACT

Recently, the general publics are getting more aware of the global environment condition. They are getting more concern on the environment and human health. They are disturbed to know that elements in the air that we breathe everyday might also contain some amount of hazardous gas due to air pollutions. These hazardous gases may affect human health not only instantly, but also in the long run. An electronic nose or ENose is a device designed to mimick the biological human nose which is able to detect and discriminate different types of odors including hazardous gasses. These electronic nose devices have been around for several years but have typically been large and expensive. Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, many applications which utilize the Android platform have emerged in the market. These applications are used in various fields which also includes the healthcare and medical field. The paper presents the design of an Android device as a platform to display data from an electronic nose. The Andrioid E-Nose is developed using two different microcontrollers (Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android and IOIO for Android) which can be used separately to work with any (suitable) Android devices (smartphones or tablets). The proposed device is designed to be small, less expensive, portable and user friendly. The proposed portable Android E-Nose should be able to measure and discriminate between different types of gases with a user-friendly interface

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ABSTRAK

Baru-baru ini umumnya orang awam semakin sedar keadaan persekitaran global. Mereka memberi perhatian yang lebih terhadap alam sekitar dan kesihatan manusia. Mereka juga terganggu untuk tahu bahawa unsur-unsur di udara yang kita sedut setiap hari mungkin mengandungi beberapa jumlah gas berbahaya akibat pencemaran udara. Gas-gas berbahaya ini boleh menjejaskan kesihatan manusia bukan sahaja serta-merta, tetapi juga dalam jangka masa panjang. Hidung elektronik atau E-Nose adalah peranti yang direka untuk meniru hidung biologi manusia yang mampu untuk mengesan dan mendiskriminasi jenis bau termasuk gas-gas berbahaya. Hidung elektronik telah wujud beberapa tahun tetapi biasanya besar dan mahal. Pada masa kini, dengan kemajuan teknologi, banyak aplikasi yang menggunakan platform Android telah muncul di pasaran. Aplikasi ini digunakan dalam pelbagai bidang termasuk penjagaan kesihatan dan bidang perubatan. Kertas ini membentangkan reka bentuk peranti Android sebagai platform untuk memaparkan data daripada hidung elektronik. Android E-Nose dibangunkan dengan menggunakan dua pengawal mikro yang berbeza (Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android dan IOIO for Android) yang boleh digunakan secara berasingan untuk bekerjasama dengan manamana (sesuai) peranti Android (telefon pintar atau tablet). Peranti yang dicadangkan direka untuk menjadi kecil, lebih murah, mudah alih dan mesra pengguna. Android ENose mudah alih yang dicadangkan seharusnya mampu untuk mengukur dan membezakan antara pelbagai jenis gas dengan antara muka yang mesra pengguna.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

TITLE

PAGE

DECLARATION DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT ABSTRAK TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ii iii iv v vi vii x xi xii

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project Background 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Scope 1.5 Summary of Work 1.6 Thesis Organization

1 1 3 4 4 5 6

THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction

8 8

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2.2 Electronic Nose 2.3 Biological Olfactory System vs Electronic Nose 2.4 Android 2.5 Sensors 2.6 Application of E-Nose 2.6.1 Assessing Fruit Ripeness 2.6.2 Monitoring Air Quality 2.6.3 iSmell Synthesizer 2.6.4 Alcohol Detector

9 10 11 12 15 15 16 17 18

METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Project Overview 3.3 Hardware Implementation 3.3.1 Gas Sensor 3.3.2 Android Devices 3.3.3 IOIO for Android 3.3.4 Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android 3.3.5 DC Pump Motor 3.3.6 Electrovalve 3.3.7 PCB Board Design 3.4 Software Implementation 3.4.1 Flowchart for Android E-Nose using ADK Microchip Board 3.4.2 Flowchart for Android E-Nose using IOIO Board 3.4.3 Java Programming

19 19 20 21 21 22 23 23

24 25 26 28 28

30 31

RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Introduction

33 33

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4.2 Results - ADK Microchip Board 4.3 Results - IOIO Board 4.4 Problems and Solutions 4.5 Advantages

34 38 39 41

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Conclusion 5.3 Limited and Recommendations

42 42 42 43

REFERENCES APPENDICES A- G

45 48

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. 1.1 1.2 2.1

TITLE Gantt chart of Final Year Project 1 Gantt chart of Final Year Project 2 The comparison between biological olfactory system and electronic nose

PAGE 5 6 11

2.2

The type of sensors that commonly used in electronic nose with their advantages and disadvantages

14

3.1 3.2

Target gas and application of gas sensor Operating Requirement of DC Pump Motor

21 24

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. 1.1

TITLE Graph of Top 8 Mobile Operating Systems in Malaysia from January 2012 to April 2012

PAGE 3

2.1

Analogy between the human olfactory system and an artificial electronic nose

10

2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3.1 3.2 3.3

Example of Android devices Example of E-Nose The schematic diagram of an electronic nose Wireless electronic nose system iSmell device by Digiscents Block diagram of Android E-Nose IOIO for Android The Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android

12 13 15 16 17 20 23 24

3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11

DC pump motor Electrovalve Circuit design using Altium Designer Steps of making the PCB board Flowcharts for ADK Microchip Board Flowchart of IOIO Board Overview of Java Eclipse The Android Emulator

25 26 27 27 29 30 31 32

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4.1 4.2 4.3

Overview of Android E-Nose and Android device Android E-Nose The user interface of Android E-Nose application a) time setting b) the results

34 35 36

4.4

Responses curve of smoke from vehicles with different gas sensors

37

4.5

Responses curve of odor from Dashing perfume with alcohol gas sensor

37

4.6 4.7 4.8

Responses curve of odor from Afiat oil Circuit for Android E-Nose using IOIO Board User interface of Android E-Nose application using IOIO board

38 39 39

4.9

The noise in the graph

41

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LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADK SDK PCB

Android Development Kit Software Development Kit Printed Circuit Board

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Project Background

Electronic nose, or also called E-Nose is an array of sensors used to characterize complex odor samples. Up till today, the available electronic nose devices are becoming more popular and are used in various fields such as the food industry [1], perfumery, biotechnology, medicine and environmental science [2]. The use and well-acceptance of E-Nose in various applications is due to the ability of the device to function closely to the human olfactory system.

Nowadays, with the advancement of information technology, people tend to carry their mobile gadgets wherever they go, particularly the smartphones, as it is seen to become very important in their daily activities. A media mobile report by Nielson

stated that, since 2009 the majority of people who owns smartphones are those aged between 2534 years and 1824 years olds (64% and 53% respectively) [3].

The use of smartphones for simple daily computing tasks is very well-liked by the public majority (who owns a smartphone) as they have many advantages over a personal computer (PC) or laptop, portability being a major one. With a smartphone, users are able to perform almost every task that they could do with their laptop or computer. The current technology in smartphones enables users to transfer various data which includes image, video, and sound to anyone, but not data which is related to odors. Up till now, there are still a limited number of devices that allows user to transfer odor data to a second party. In addition, the stand alone E-Nose available in the market is costly, and less user-friendly [4]..

Android is an open source mobile operating system that is widely used in mobile gadgets. It is equipped with various applications and user friendly. The figure below (Figure 1.1) shows the statistics of the Top 8 Mobile Operating Systems in Malaysia from January 2012 to April 2012. From the statistics,, Android is the leading operating system and leaving behind the other seven operating system which are Symbian OS, iOS, Blackberry OS, Sony Ericsson OS, Samsung OS and others [5].

Figure 1.1 Top 8 Mobile Operating Systems in Malaysia ( January 2012 - April 2012)

By using Android in mobile devices as a platform to display data from E-Nose, it is expected that it will provide a low cost and user friendly application to users. This project will focus on the capabilities of Android in a mobile device to control and display the data from an E-Nose instrument.

1.2

Problem Statement

We are aware that technology is constantly undergoing advances. When it comes to smartphones, technology moves so rapidly that it is sometimes hard for people to keep up. Besides being a means of communication, smartphones are designed as a source of entertainment with interesting features and special abilities such as motion sensor,

Bluetooth, wireless network and camera with high definition. In fact, most users find that it is indeed impossible for them to go through their day without their smartphones. Smartphones enable users to send and receive images, sound, and videos, anytime and anywhere. However, the technologies of smartphones have been impeded by the lack of science-base approaches to send and display the data of odors. Electronic nose devices have been around for several years but have typically been large and expensive. Therefore, there is a need for a portable E-Nose which is low in cost and user friendly

1.3

Objectives

The current research is focused on developing a device which is small, less expensive, portable and user friendly by integrating an E- Nose instrument to a smartphone, The motivation of the proposed device is that users are more likely to carry their phone throughout the day as it is seen as an indispensable tool and important for their daily activities, compared to, having to wear special micro sensors instrument while moving around. The proposed portable Android E-Nose should be able to measure and discriminate between different types of gases with a user-friendly interface.

1.4

Project Scope

The implementation of this project is estimated to involve 60% of hardware and 40% software. The scope of the project involves:-

1. Developing communication between an electronic nose instrument (an array of gas sensors) and an Android device through a microcontroller (IOIO Board or ADK Microchip Board). 2. Designing an Android software using JAVATM that is able to display different output patterns of different gases.

1.5

Summary of Work

Table 1.1 and Table 1.2 show the work plans throughout two (2) semesters respectively:

Table 1.1: Gantt chart for Final Year Project 1

ACTIVITIES/ WEEK Research on potential projects Literature Review Project Proposal Component identification & circuit design FYP Presentation Development of Android E-Nose Project Report 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Table 1.2: Gantt chart for Final Year Project 2

ACTIVITIES/ WEEK Development of Android application using Java Integration of Java Application with ENose Testing & verification Troubleshooting & Optimization Final Report (Draft) Final Seminar Presentation Final Thesis completion Thesis Submission 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

1.6

Thesis Organization

The thesis describes the development of an Android E-Nose instrument in five chapters. Chapter 1 consists of the project background, problem statement, objectives and the scope of the overall project. The second chapter discusses on the literature review from previous research related to electronic nose and their various applications. The methodology and procedures implemented in the project are explained in detail in Chapter 3 which involves designing the printed circuit board (PCB), development of the E-Nose instrument and Java Eclipse Programming to design the Android application. Chapter 4 presents the results obtained from the designed device and discusses the results obtained from four different gas sensors which are used to test and verify different gas reactions. Lastly, Chapter 5 concludes all of the findings and provides recommendations for future developments.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

The chapter explains and summarizes in detail on the electronic nose itself and the theories that are related to the device which includes the principles and the analogy of the olfactory human body system that the electronic nose mimics. The chapter also discusses on Android devices and briefly summarizes the application of Android devices in various fields.

2.2

Electronic Nose

The Electronic nose or also known as E-Nose has been developed to operate similarly as the human olfactory. Recently, the E-Nose instrument has become available as a commercial product [6] and it has been proven useful for food freshness identification and environmental classification. The electronic nose is presently a

relatively new analytical technology. According to Gardner and Barnett, the definition of an E-Nose is [7]:

An electronic nose is an instrument which comprises an array of electronics chemical sensors with partial specificity and an appropriate pattern recognition system, capable of recognizing simple or complex odors.

There are two main components in an E-Nose which includes the sensing system and the automated pattern recognition system [8]. The stages of the recognition process are similar to thte human olfactory and are performed for identification, comparison, quantification, and applications including data storage and retrieval. Some researchers defined electronic nose as arrays of specific sensors able to generate electrical signals in response to simple or complex volatile compounds and provide analysis technique, possibility of discrimination, recognition, classification of odors and also identify whether a persons sense of smell function as the E-Nose or not [9].

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2.3

Biological Olfactory System vs Electronic Nose

Figure 2.1 presents the analogy between the human biological olfactory system and artificial electronic nose.

Figure 2.1: Analogy between the human olfactory system and an artificial electronic nose [7]

System array in an E-Nose system works as the olfactory epithelium of a human nose (comprises of millions of sensing sense). There are various types of sensors that can be used to detect gasses, such as metal oxide semiconductors (MOS), conducting polymers (CP), quartz crystal microbalance, surface acoustic wave (SAW), and field effect transistors (MOSFET) [10]. Unlike the electronic nose, the human nose is very adaptive. Table 2.1 shows the comparison between the biological olfactory system and the electronic nose.

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Table 2.1: The comparison between biological olfactory system and electronic nose [11].

COMPARISON ASPECT SENSING TOOLS SENSORS SIGNALS PATHWAY OUTPUT SOURCE

BIOLOGICAL OLFACTORY SYSTEM Human nose Odor receptors Neuron system of the body Brain Signal

ELECTRONIC NOSE Sensing chamber Electronic sensors Artificial Neural Network Pattern Recognition

2.4

Android

Android operating system is an open source framework designed for Android devices such as smart phones and tablets (as shown in Figure 2.2), that packages an

operating system, middleware, and key applications [12] [13]. It is a comprehensive platform that features a Linux based operating system stack for managing devices, memory and processes. Google created the framework and made it to be available to Java Programmers through a Software Development Kit (SDK) that is known as Android SDK. The Android SDK provides libraries needed to interface with the

hardware at a high level make Android applications [14].

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Figure 2.2: Example of Android devices

The familiarity and simplicity of the JAVA Programming language coupled with Android intensive libraries makes Android a compelling platform to create programs.

2.5

Sensors

Sensors are devices that mechanize the ability of the five human organs, i.e., eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin in the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch [15]. Sensors receive and measure the physical quantities and then convert it into electrical signals which can be read by an observer or an instrument. In the medical field, sensors such as the IR sensors are deployed to monitor patients and assist disabled patients [16].

In an E-Nose device, the reaction of a specific gas with the sensors will cause changes in the sensors electrical conductivity. The changes are dependent on a complex interaction between the compositions of the gas and the sensors. The array of sensors is

13

the most important component in the E-Nose. It is set to consist of several sensors with different types, each having different sensitivities which are used in the odor detection part. Figure 2.3 shows the example of an E-Nose that consists of several gas sensors.

Figure 2.3: Example of E-Nose

Referring to previous studies, there are many types of sensors that have been used in developing the electronic nose system. The most common type of sensors used is the metal oxide semiconductors and conducting polymers. Different types of sensors have different characteristics, which includes coatings, operating temperature and methods of operation. Hence, these various sensors will provide different electrical response for a particular gas/odor. Table 2.2 lists the types of sensors that are usually used in the electronic nose application.

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Table 2.2: Type of sensors that commonly used in electronic nose [11].
Active Material Sensor Type Measure Advantages Operate at ambient, Chemoresistor Conductivity inexpensive, diverse range of coatings Disadvantages Sensitive to temperature and humidity High operating Fast response and Metal Oxide Chemoresistor Conductivity recovery time, inexpensive temperatures, sulfur poisoning problem, limited range of coatings

Conducting polymer

Lithium niobate, polymeric, liquid crystal, lipid layer

Surface acoustic wave device (SAW) Piezoelectricity

Diverse range of coatings, high sensitivity, good response time Complex surface circuitry

Quartz crystal with membrane coating (usually a type of polymer) Catalytic gate (usually a catalytic metal)

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) Piezoelectricity

Diverse range of coatings, good reproducibility

Poor signal to nose ratio, complex circuitry

MOSFET

Threshold voltage change

Small, inexpensive sensors

Baseline drift, need controlled environment

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2.6

Applications of E-Nose

Several researches have been conducted on the electronic nose devices with different objectives.

2.6.1

Assessing Fruit Ripeness

A research by Brezmes, J., et al. [17] evaluated the efficiency of an artificial olfactory to assess fruit ripeness by measuring fruit maturity. Figure 2.4 shows the block diagram of the overall system.

Figure 2.4: Eletronic Nose forAssessing Fruit Ripeness [17].

As shown in Figure 2.4, there are three modules which include the head space module, the sensor array module and the computer module. The electrovalve allows

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clean air to enter the measurement chamber to calibrate the gas sensor. The concentration chamber is where the fruit sample is placed. The valve and the air pump, both controlled by the computer will guide the air to flow to the measurement chamber. This is where the gas sensor will sense the odor and sends it to the computer for data interpretation.

2.6.2

Monitoring Air Quality

In 2010, Pogfay, T., et al. [18] has performed a study on a wireless electronic nose for environment quality classification by monitoring the air quality in the environment (as shown in Figure 2.5) . Odor data measured by a wireless e-nose are delivered via a ZigBee wireless network to a database station where data storage and analysis are implemented.

Figure 2.5: Wireless electronic nose system [18]

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2.6.3

iSmell Synthesizer

Figure 2.6 presents the iSmell synthesizer introduced by Digiscents in October 2000 [19].

Figure 2.6: iSmell device by Digiscents

iSmell is a plug-in computer accessory that contains a basic palette of scented oils from which a bouquet of different smells can be created. Each scent is coded and digitized into a small file. When the request or triggers the specific smell, a small amount of the aroma is emitted by the device. For this device, the users need to download the desired smell before they can smell it. The concept is similar to the concept of downloading a specific music or song from the internet before it is able to be heard.

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2.6.4

Alcohol Detector

Another application of the E-nose is the electronic alcohol nose which is able to recognize and measure the concentration of alcohol in the gas exhaled by a drunkard. The device which is also known as breathalyzer is widely used in the police force [20]. The design of the breathalyzer is not complicated as it only requires one type of sensor which is able to sense the elements of alcohol. If the gas exhaled by a person contains high percentage of alcohol and he is found to be driving, the police will compound the driver.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

Introduction

This chapter reviews the methods that were employed to design the Android ENose. The block diagram of the Android E-Nose system is also discussed in this chapter. The methods used to design the Android E-Nose system are explained steps by steps which include the PCB board design and software design.

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3.2

Project Overview

Figure 3.1 shows the block diagram of the proposed Android E-Nose.

Figure 3.1: Block diagram of Android E-Nose

The electrovalve will allow clean air to enter the sensing chamber in order to calibrate the gas sensors. The electrovalve will also allow the odor samples to enter the sensing chamber for the gas sensors to measure the different gasses concentration. The electrovalve, sensing chamber and air pump are controlled by the IOIO for Android board. The data signal will be sent to the Android device to be interpreted. Finally, the Android devices will display the data in the form of a line chart with the values of ADC versus time.

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3.3

Hardware Implementation

The hardware of the project consists of 16 gas sensors, air pump, electrovalve and the microcontrollers (ADK Microchip Board or IOIO Board). In addition, the PCB board was also designed for this project.

3.3.1

Gas Sensor

The main component in developing the E-Nose instrument is the gas sensors. The 16 gas sensors that are able to sense different type of gasses are used to detect the types of odor in each sample of gases.

The MQ series Semiconductor gas sensors, with 16 different metal oxide gas sensors that are able to detect different types of gas were used in the project. They are MQ2, MQ3, MQ4, MQ5, MQ6, MQ7, MQ8 and MQ9. All of these sensors have different sensitivities to a specific gas. Table 3.1 shows the type of sensors, their corresponding target gas and the applications of sensors used in this project.

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Table 3.1: Target gas and application of gas sensor Sensor MQ-2 MQ-3 MQ-4 Target Gas General combustible gas Alcohol Natural gas, Methane LPG, Natural gas, Coal gas Applications Detecting LPG, i-butane, propane, methane, alcohol, Hydrogen, smoke. Suitable for alcohol checker, breathalyzer. Detecting CH4, Natural gas. LNG, avoid the noise of alcohol and cooking fumes and cigarette smoke. Detecting LPG, natural gas, town gas, avoids the noise of alcohol and cooking fumes and cigarette smoke. Detecting LPG, iso-butane, propane, LNG, avoid the noise of alcohol and cooking fumes and cigarette smoke. Detecting equipment for carbon monoxide (CO) Detecting Hydrogen (H2), avoid the noise of alcohol and cooking fumes, LPG, CO. Detecting equipment for carbon monoxide and CH4, LPG in family and industry or car.

MQ-5

MQ-6

LPG, Propane

MQ-7 MQ-8

Carbon Monoxide (CO) Hydrogen CO and Combustible gas

MQ-9

3.3.2

Android Devices

Several Android devices are used as a platform to display data from the E-Nose device. In this project, three Android devices are used which are Acer Iconia A500 Tab, Samsung Nexus and Sony Xperia X8.

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3.3.3

IOIO for Android

The IOIO (pronounced "yo-yo") or IOIO board is a board specially designed to operate with an Android device (a smart phone or tablet). The board, as shown in Figure 3.2 provides a robust connectivity to an Android device via a USB connection and is fully controllable from within an Android application using a simple and intuitive JAVA programming.

Figure 3.2

IOIO for Android

3.3.4

Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android

The Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android in Figure 3.4 is a standalone board for evaluating and developing electronic

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accessories for Google's Android operating system in smartphones and tablets [21]. It consists of a 16-bitPIC24 development board, a PICkit 3 In-Circuit Debugger and a royalty-free, no fee licensed software library (available via download) that enables the fast and easy development of Android smartphone and tablet accessories based on Microchip's portfolio of 16-bit and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers. The board is known as ADK Microchip Board.

Figure 3.3 ADK Microchip Board

3.3.5

DC Pump Motor

Figure 3.4 shows the DC pump motor that is used in this project. It requires a 5V DC power supply to operate. Table 3.2 specifies the operating requirement of the DC pump motor.

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Figure 3.4

DC pump motor.

Table 3.2 Operating Requirement of DC Pump Motor SPECIFICATION Operate voltage Current Power KNF NEUBERGER PUMP 5V DC 2A 12W

3.3.6

Electrovalve

Electrovalve is used to control the air flow in the Android E-Nose. The electrovalve will be connected to the digital input of the microcontroller to control the opening and closing of the electrovalve.

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Figure 3.5: Electrovalve

3.3.7

PCB Board Design

Figure 3.6 shows the circuit design using Altium Designer which consists of an air pump, a IOIO Board, an ADK Microchip Board, 16 gas sensors, an electrovalve and two analog multiplexers. For this project, only one microcontroller is able to function at a time. Since the ADK Microchip Board has only four analog inputs, the analog multiplexers are used to connect all the 16 gas sensors to the analog input. The circuit is then used to design the PCB board.

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Figure 3.6 Circuit design using Altium Designer

The steps of designing the PCB board for the Android E-Nose are shown in Figure 3.7:-

Figure 3.7 Steps of making the PCB board

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3.4

Software Implementation

Software implementation is another major part in constructing the Android application and user interface of the project. It includes the Java programming for the microcontrollers (ADK Microchip Board and IOIO Board) and designing of the user interface.

3.4.1

Flowchart for Android E-Nose using ADK Microchip Board

Figure 3.8 shows the flowchart of the Android E-Nose when the ADK Microchip Board is employed. The program lets the users choose to either set the time automatically or manually. Base is the time taken by the air pump to force the gas sample into the Android E-Nose. Test is the time taken for the electrovalve to let the gas enter the sensing chamber for the sensors and Purge is the time taken to let the gas out of the sensing chamber in order to calibrate the gas sensors.

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Start

Manual

Set Condition

Automatic

Set Base Set Test Set Purge

Base = 10s Test = 10s Purge = 40s

Air Pump turns ON

Electrovalve open depend on set test t Test TIme Gas sensors take reading

Print graph of ADC vs time

Stop

Figure 3.8 Flowchart for ADK Microchip Board

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3.4.2

Flowchart for Android E-Nose using IOIO Board

The application is almost similar when using the IOIO Boards. The only difference is that the application is simpler than the Android application used for the ADK Microchip Board. The IOIO library is required in Java Programming to design the application using IOIO board. The IOIO library can be downloaded from the developers website.

Start

ON

Set air pump condition

OFF

Air pump ON

Set Test time

Electrovalve open depend on set Test TIme Gas sensors take reading

Print graph of ADC vs. time

Stop

Figure 3.9 Flowchart for IOIO Board

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3.4.3

Java Programming

Java Eclipse, which is commonly used by Java developers, is a multilanguage software development environment comprising an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-in system. It provides GUIs and wizards to create the Android project. An Android design consists all of the files and resources that are needed to build a project into an .apk file for installation. APK file is a file needed to install an application on a device. Figure 3.10 shows the overview of the Java Eclipse.

Figure 3.10 Overview of Java Eclipse

The Android SDK includes a virtual mobile device emulator that runs on the computer. The Android emulator is an application that provides a virtual mobile device on which Android applications can be operated. It lets user test the prototype, develop and test Android applications without using a physical device. The figure below (Figure 3.11) shows the emulator of the Android Device Manager.

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Figure 3.11 The Android Emulator

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CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1

Introduction

This chapter discusses on the results obtained from experiments and the problems faced during the progression of this project. The results of the project include the circuit design development of the Android E-Nose instrument to be able to sense gas and the JAVA Programming used to design the Android application interface. The results are divided into two parts which are the results from the IOIO Board controller and the results from the ADK Microchip Board controller.

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4.2

Results - ADK Microchip Board

Figure 4.1 shows the full setup of the Android E-Nose. Before operating the device, a few connection need to be setup. The Android E-Nose needs to be connected to an Android device and a 9V power supply.

Figure 4.1 Setup of the Android E-Nose and an Android device (Tablet)

Figure 4.2 Android E-Nose

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The user needs to run the application in the Android device. The application consists of two parts which is the time setting and the displayed results. Firstly, the user needs to set the Base time, Test time and Purge time. Base time is the time taken for the air pump to extract the gas. Test time is the time taken for the electrovalve to open and let the gas enter the sensing chamber while Purge time is the time to release the gas out of the sensing chamber as well as to calibrate the gas sensors. The user is able to choose to set the time(s) either automatically or manually. If the user chooses the automatic mode, the time will be automatically set to 10 seconds Base, 10 seconds Test, and 40 seconds Purge. The response of the gas sensors will be displayed as a line chart of ADC versus time. The figures below (Figure 4.3) exhibit the user interface of the Android ENose application.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.3 User interface of the Android E-Nose application a) time setting b) the results

To determine the functionality of the Android E-Nose, some experiments have been conducted. In this experiment, only 4 sensors were used which are MQ-3 (sensitive to alcohol), MQ-5 (sensitive to LPG), MQ-7 (sensitive to Carbon Monoxide) and MQ131 (sensitive to air quality and ozone). Figure 4.4 shows the line chart of ADC versus time when the Android E-Nose was tested with the exhausted gas from vehicle. From The output shows that responses were only from the MQ-7 and MQ-131 sensors. This is

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because the exhausted gas from vehicle consists of carbon monoxide and when it reacts with the outdoor gases, it will eventually become ozone.

Figure 4.4 Responses curve of exhausted gas from vehicles with different gas sensors

The Android E-Nose was also tested with the odor from a Dashing perfume. In this case, only the MQ-3 gas sensor was activated whereas the other sensors were deactivated. As the perfume contains alcohol, sensor MQ-3 was able to show its reaction towards the stimulus.

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Figure 4.5 Responses curve of odor from Dashing perfume with alcohol gas sensor

The Android E-Nose was also tested with the odor from massage oil, called Afiat oil. Since the oil does not contain any alcohol, carbon monoxide or ozone, there was no response obtained from any of the sensors.

Figure 4.6 Responses curve of odor from Afiat oil

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4.3

Results - IOIO Board

Figure 4.7 shows the circuit board of the Android E-Nose using the IOIO board. The board consists of four gas sensors, an air pump, and an electrovalve. The IOIO board needs a supply of voltage within the range of 9V to 13V in order to operate. It is then connected to an Android device. Figure 4.8 shows the user interface of the Android E-Nose application using the IOIO board.

Figure 4.7 Circuit board for Android E-Nose using IOIO Board.

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Figure 4.8 User interface of Android E-Nose application using IOIO board

4.4

Problems and Solutions

In developing the Android E-Nose, several challenges were encountered. The Android E-Nose was not able to communicate with any Android devices when used with the IOIO board. It was tested with several devices which include devices from Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, Samsung Nexus, HTC Wildfire and Acer Iconia A500 tablet PC. . One of the IOIO board developer, Ytai gave his response about the problem in the forum and stated that,

As far as OS is concerned - it should work with anything 1.5 or later. But as we've seen, different models have different quirks that may be related to different behavior on the physical layer (i.e. sensitivity to voltage drops, etc.) and to different behavior on the

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lowest layers of USB (i.e. how the device exposes itself). So you shouldn't automatically assume your device will be supported. That's why I started this thread, with the hope that people would share what worked for them. Ytai IOIO for Android developer

The forum group was developed to solve any problems related to the IOIO board applications. There was also a list of all the Android devices that is reported to be able to communicate with the IOIO board to help user know the suitable device for any IOIO board project.

Besides that, the Android E-Nose showed noise signals during some the experiments. It might be caused by the PCB layout problems and the environments. Figure 4.9 shows a sample of noise signal during the experiment.

NOISE

Figure 4.9 Noise signal

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4.5

Advantages

The initial prototype designed for the Android E- Nose application has several advantages. It is portable, requires a small power consumption, and its lifetime depends on the battery of the Android device associated to it.

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1

Introduction

This chapter briefly discusses about the conclusion and recommendations for future improvements to enhance the application of the Android E-Nose.

5.2

Conclusion

The Android E-Nose is able to communicate with the Android devices through the microcontroller (ADK Microchip Board) with a user friendly interface. The control

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of the Android E-Nose can be implemented using two methods, by either using the IOIO Board or the ADK Microchip Board. However, ADK Microchip is more suitable for the project due to several factors.

On the other hand, Android E-Nose is portable as it can be attached to a mobile device. This is due to the rationale that people nowadays are more likely to carry their mobile gadgets wherever they go and as it is seen to become an essential instrument in their daily living, compared to having to wear special micro sensors while getting around.

For further development, the Android E-Nose can be commercialized in many applications. The Android E-Nose also is able to measure, display and discriminate different output patterns for different gases. The device can be used as a breathalyzer by the police force to detect the presence of alcohol in breath during alcohol tests. A policeman just needs to bring the device and their smartphones during their working period. It also can be used to monitor the air quality in any environment.

5.3

Limitations and Recommendations

There are several recommendations that can be made to improve the current Android E-Nose design. The current design consists of an air pump and gas sensors that quite large in size. For future work, the use of small air pump and gas sensors can be implemented to have an Android E-Nose which is smaller and more portable.

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During the experiments, the response curve displayed on the Android devices may sometimes show some noise signal. The design can be improved by overcoming the noise problems with the additional design of a noise filter, and also by designing the PCB layout properly to reduce avoid unwanted signals.

For the current design, there are several connections (9V power supply to Android E-Nose and USB cable to connect Android E-Nose with the Android device) that need to be setup to operate the device. The project can be improved by using a wireless or Bluetooth device.

Although the device is portable, users still need to bring the device with their smartphone to anywhere. For future design enhancement, the device can be integrated with the gas sensors in smartphones so that it is even smaller in size and easy for user to carry. .

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International Conference on. 2010. 19. 20. Kanwar, H.S., Digital Smell Technology. 2000. Paulsson, N.J.P. and F. Winquist, Analysis of breath alcohol with a multisensor array: instrumental setup, characterization and evaluation. Forensic Science International, 1999. 105(2): p. 95-114. 21. Inc., M.T., PIC24F Accessory Development Starter Kit for Android Data Sheet. 2011.

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APPENDIX A Electrovalve Datasheet

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APPENDIX B DC Air Pump Datasheet

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APPENDIX C Analog Multiplexer Datasheet

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APPENDIX D IOIO For Android Schematic Diagram

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APPENDIX E Microchip DM240415 PIC24F Accessory Development Kit For Android Schematic Diagram

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APPENDIX F MQ-7 Gas Sensor Datasheet

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APPENDIX G MQ-3 Gas Sensor Datasheet

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