“We call it a laboratory in the palm of your hand,” Probst said. “It will do the whole testing process that you do in a lab to detect some type of organism in 10 to 15 minutes, compared to several hours in a lab.”
Training to run the tests should be a simple process for airport personnel or field workers, Probst said. “We’ve taken the guesswork out of it and the person running the test doesn’t need to be a programmer or even a medical person.” A small blood sample can be taken with a finger prick, while a swab can be used to swab the nose or the mouth of a patient.
On the technology side, PositiveID has designed the system to allow different test programs to be encoded on an RFID chip inside the one-use cartridges. The reagents and other fluids needed to conduct the test are also inside the cartridge, and those test results are transmitted to the laptop device optically.
Once transmitted to the larger Firefly device, the data is further interpreted and can be sent to a smartphone or other device via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, with the data eventually stored in a cloud-based system easily accessible by multiple parties. The data can also be read on an LED display.
Firefly runs on a proprietary, open-source operating system built with C, C++ and HTML tools, Probst said. A separate battery charger can re-charge the device’s Lithium-Ion battery.
Much of the research on Firefly actually began a decade ago and cost $35 million in funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
