Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers

Ngoc Thi Nguyen; Agustin Zuniga; Marko Radeta; Huber Flores; Petteri Nurmi

doi:10.1145/3638550.3641123

Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers

Ngoc Thi Nguyen, Agustin Zuniga, Marko Radeta, Huber Flores, Petteri Nurmi

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

What we eat and drink has a significant impact on our health. Unfortunately, anything we eat and drink increasingly contains micro-plastics, tiny fragments of plastic material that result from erosion of plastic objects. Indeed, estimates suggest that humans can ingest up to a credit card worth of micro-plastics each week. We contribute a novel wearable system for detecting the presence of micro-plastics in food and drink containers using optical sensing, low-cost micro-controllers, and signal processing techniques that analyze the contents of the containers. We validate our approach through benchmarks using different plastic materials and concentrations, demonstrating that our approach can identify micro-plastics with over 91% accuracy and classify the type of plastic with over 88% accuracy. Our solution offers an innovative yet low-cost pervasive sensing method for improving food safety and detecting containers that are dangerous to use or otherwise faulty.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications
Publisher	The Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	Feb 2024
Pages	93–98
ISBN (Electronic)	979-8-4007-0497-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3638550.3641123
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024
MoE publication type	A4 Article in conference proceedings
Event	The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications - San Diego, United States Duration: 28 Feb 2024 → 29 Feb 2024 Conference number: 25

Fields of Science

113 Computer and information sciences
Low-cost sensors
Pervasive sensing
Microplastics detection
Food safety

Access to Document

10.1145/3638550.3641123Licence: CC BY

nguyen_2024_life_is_plasticAccepted author manuscript, 10.8 MBLicence: CC BY
PlasticFinal published version, 10.7 MBLicence: CC BY

Foundations of Pervasive Sensing Systems
Nurmi, P. (Principal Investigator)
01/09/2021 → 31/08/2025
Project: Research Council of Finland: Academy Project

Cite this

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title = "Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers",

abstract = "What we eat and drink has a significant impact on our health. Unfortunately, anything we eat and drink increasingly contains micro-plastics, tiny fragments of plastic material that result from erosion of plastic objects. Indeed, estimates suggest that humans can ingest up to a credit card worth of micro-plastics each week. We contribute a novel wearable system for detecting the presence of micro-plastics in food and drink containers using optical sensing, low-cost micro-controllers, and signal processing techniques that analyze the contents of the containers. We validate our approach through benchmarks using different plastic materials and concentrations, demonstrating that our approach can identify micro-plastics with over 91% accuracy and classify the type of plastic with over 88% accuracy. Our solution offers an innovative yet low-cost pervasive sensing method for improving food safety and detecting containers that are dangerous to use or otherwise faulty. ",

keywords = "113 Computer and information sciences, Low-cost sensors, Pervasive sensing, Microplastics detection, Food safety",

author = "Nguyen, {Ngoc Thi} and Agustin Zuniga and Marko Radeta and Huber Flores and Petteri Nurmi",

year = "2024",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1145/3638550.3641123",

language = "English",

pages = "93–98",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications",

publisher = "The Association for Computing Machinery",

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note = "The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications ; Conference date: 28-02-2024 Through 29-02-2024",

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Nguyen, NT , Zuniga, A, Radeta, M, Flores, H & Nurmi, P 2024, Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers. in Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications. The Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 93–98, The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, San Diego, United States, 28/02/2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3638550.3641123

Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers. / Nguyen, Ngoc Thi ; Zuniga, Agustin; Radeta, Marko et al.
Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications. The Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. p. 93–98.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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T1 - Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers

AU - Nguyen, Ngoc Thi

AU - Zuniga, Agustin

AU - Radeta, Marko

AU - Flores, Huber

AU - Nurmi, Petteri

N1 - Conference code: 25

PY - 2024/2

Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - What we eat and drink has a significant impact on our health. Unfortunately, anything we eat and drink increasingly contains micro-plastics, tiny fragments of plastic material that result from erosion of plastic objects. Indeed, estimates suggest that humans can ingest up to a credit card worth of micro-plastics each week. We contribute a novel wearable system for detecting the presence of micro-plastics in food and drink containers using optical sensing, low-cost micro-controllers, and signal processing techniques that analyze the contents of the containers. We validate our approach through benchmarks using different plastic materials and concentrations, demonstrating that our approach can identify micro-plastics with over 91% accuracy and classify the type of plastic with over 88% accuracy. Our solution offers an innovative yet low-cost pervasive sensing method for improving food safety and detecting containers that are dangerous to use or otherwise faulty.

AB - What we eat and drink has a significant impact on our health. Unfortunately, anything we eat and drink increasingly contains micro-plastics, tiny fragments of plastic material that result from erosion of plastic objects. Indeed, estimates suggest that humans can ingest up to a credit card worth of micro-plastics each week. We contribute a novel wearable system for detecting the presence of micro-plastics in food and drink containers using optical sensing, low-cost micro-controllers, and signal processing techniques that analyze the contents of the containers. We validate our approach through benchmarks using different plastic materials and concentrations, demonstrating that our approach can identify micro-plastics with over 91% accuracy and classify the type of plastic with over 88% accuracy. Our solution offers an innovative yet low-cost pervasive sensing method for improving food safety and detecting containers that are dangerous to use or otherwise faulty.

KW - 113 Computer and information sciences

KW - Low-cost sensors

KW - Pervasive sensing

KW - Microplastics detection

KW - Food safety

U2 - 10.1145/3638550.3641123

DO - 10.1145/3638550.3641123

M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - Proceedings of the 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

PB - The Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications

Y2 - 28 February 2024 through 29 February 2024

ER -

Life is Plastic? Detecting the Presence of Micro-Plastics in Food and Drink Containers

Abstract

Fields of Science

Access to Document

Projects

Foundations of Pervasive Sensing Systems

Cite this