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The ElecTrobe project aims to turn smartphones into portable wine testing devices that can detect sulfur dioxide levels in wine – faster, cheaper and more accurately than current methods.

ElecTrobe inventor, Associate Professor Conor Hogan from the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, and his team have used the inbuilt audio functions of a mobile phone to make chemical measurements which would usually need to be carried out in a lab.

The researchers will now work on a Proof of Concept, using funding from La Trobe’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) – an early stage investment fund created to help maximise La Trobe research impact.

“Mobile phone technology is so sophisticated these days that our smartphones have become more than communication devices,” Associate Professor Hogan said.

“La Trobe University’s investment will help us create a useable product that will benefit Australia’s $6.6 billion wine industry by helping them optimise the quality of wines during production.