Scientists at the York University in Canada say they have used evaporated vodka to send a text message.
The latest breakthrough in technological advancement can be helpful where wireless technology is ineffective. Scientists suggest that chemical signals may offer a more effective and efficient way of transmitting data inside underground areas, tunnels and pipelines by sending robotic equipment with molecular communication system.
"We believe we have sent the world's first text message to be transmitted entirely with molecular communication, controlling concentration levels of the alcohol molecules to encode the alphabet, with single spray representing bits and no spray representing the bit zero," said Nariman Farsad, York University doctoral candidate, who led the experiment.
According to the Professor Andrew Eckford of Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at York University, they had successfully sent a text message "O Canada" using chemicals in evaporated vodka.
Eckford explained that the chemical signal, which is made of the alcohol in vodka, was sent four meters across the lab using a tabletop fan. The signal was then translated by a receiver that measured the rate of variation in concentration of the alcohol molecules and then understanding if the concentration was increasing or decreasing. The project was funded by a Discovery grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in Canada.
Scientists gave an example of the London sewer clog that occurred in August this year. They suggest that molecular communication system may have prevented the incident and at the same time also helped authorities to understand and fix the problem without sending any humans.
The researchers also pointed out that using chemical signals may be novel to humans but is already in use in the animal kingdom. For instane, bees use chemical signals by spraying pheromones to warn other bees of any nearby threat.
Even plants and fungi send out chemical signals to communicate with other plants.
While the recent study was conducted just over a few meters, further research may help scientists to understand the benefits of molecular communication system across bigger distances in the future.
