Patent ID: 11879835
Assignee: KING FAISAL UNIVERSITY
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 9:
10. A method for detecting for a presence of a toxic element in a sample, the method comprising:
providing a sample to be tested;
turning on a hand-held portable toxic element detection system by pressing an on/off button disposed thereon;
directing an UV-VIS LED illuminator from the hand-held portable toxic element detection system toward the sample to be tested;
pressing a scan switch disposed on the hand-held portable toxic element detection system to initiate a scanning process, wherein the scanning process comprises emitting UV light from the UV-VIS LED illuminator onto the sample to be tested as incident light;
capturing a portion of the incident light being reflected from the sample as reflected light using a frinGOe interferometer disposed on the hand-held portable toxic element detection system and converting the reflected light to an interferogram spectrum;
collecting the interferogram spectrum using a camera disposed within the hand-held portable toxic element detection system;
retrieving the interferogram spectrum from the camera via a microcontroller, the microcontroller and a RAM database memory disposed within the hand-held portable toxic element detection system;
transforming the interferogram spectrum to absorption wavelength spectrum using Fourier transformation via the microcontroller, wherein the absorption wavelength spectrum comprises an absorption peak wavelength spectrum and an absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum;
comparing, using the microcontroller, the absorption peak wavelength spectrum and the absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum with absorption peak wavelength spectrum and absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum data stored in the RAM database memory, wherein the stored data absorption peak wavelength spectrum and the absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum data indicate a presence of toxic chemicals and a corresponding level of toxicity of the toxic chemicals in the sample, respectively;
normalizing the absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum according to the stored data absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum data using the microcontroller, wherein the normalization represents an amount of toxic chemicals in the sample;
comparing the normalized absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum with stored allowable toxic chemical absorption strength peak wavelength thresholds;
sending a visual and audio message indicating that the sample is safe to use to an LCD screen and a speaker, respectively, when the normalized absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum for all toxic chemicals in the sample is less than the stored allowable toxic chemical absorption strength peak wavelength thresholds;
and sending a visual and audio message indicating that the sample is not safe to use to the LCD screen and the speaker, respectively, when the normalized absorption strength peak wavelength spectrum for any toxic chemical in the sample is greater than the stored allowable toxic chemical absorption strength peak wavelength thresholds.