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Water salinity detection using a smartphone

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DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2016.08.102

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 Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/snb

Water salinity detection using a smartphone

Iftak Hussain a , Munmun Das a , Kamal Uddin Ahamad b , Pabitra Nath a,∗
a
Applied photonics and Nano-Photonics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Assam, 784028, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam 784028, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper demonstrates the operation of a smartphone based platform salinity sensor for accurate and
Received 8 April 2016 reliable monitoring of salinity level in oceanic water environment. To measure water salinity level using
Received in revised form 16 August 2016 the smartphone, two different approaches have been proposed and their sensing performances have
Accepted 18 August 2016
been compared. The first approach is based on Beer-Lambert principle where collimated light beam from
Available online 18 August 2016
an optical source while passing through the medium gets attenuated due to absorption by the medium
which can be detected and analyzed by the smartphone. The second approach is based on evanescent
Keywords:
field absorption from an uncladed U-bent sensing region of an optical fiber. Variation in salinity level
Smartphone
Salinity sensor
of the surrounding medium of the fiber sensing region affects the absorption of evanescent field and
Beer-Lambert principle this can be monitored by the smartphone. Two freely available android applications have been used for
Sensitivity detection and analysis of salinity level. The designed smartphone sensor has an ability to measure salinity
Ambient light sensor (ALS) level variation as low as 0.1 parts per thousand (ppt) with high accuracy and repeatability. We envision
that owing to its compact size, low-cost and truly user-friendly in nature, the sensing techniques could
emerge as potential alternative to existing salinity sensors that would be useful for different in-field
applications.
© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction method is susceptible to electromagnetic interference [4]. Optical

Salinity is defined as the dissolved salt content in water [1].
In general, presence of dissolved salt elements such as sodium
chloride (NaCl), potassium chloride (KCl) and magnesium chlo-
ride (MgCl2 ) in water are responsible for salinity of the medium.
The physical characteristics of environmental water bodies such
as density and heat capacity are governed by salinity along with
temperature and pressure. In oceanography, the measurement of
salinity is considered to be one of the most important parameter
for monitoring marine environment. Every marine species adapted
them to a certain salinity level. Salinity level above the normal
range may affect dissolved oxygen concentrations and osmosis reg-
ulation [2] which may result extinction of some species. Salinity
measurement is also used for detection of saltwater intrusion in
normal water plants. Presence of low level of salinity in drinking
water may not pose significant health risk but it can have certain
impact on diabetic and renal dialysis patients since they have to
control their daily salt intake [3]. The conventional method for mea-
suring salinity is to measure conductivity of the solution but this
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pnath@tezu.ernet.in (P. Nath).
techniques based on various fiber optic sensors have been pro-
posed for in-situ monitoring of water salinity [5–8]. The use of
separate opto-electronic components such as laser source, photo-
detector, microcontroller and microprocessor make such sensing
systems relatively costly and for transfer of in-field data from
remote location to central laboratory, a separate communication
set-up is needed. Since, refractive index of a medium increases with
its salinity level, refractive index based salinity sensors has also
been demonstrated [9]. The refractive index measurement gives a
relative measure of water salinity and one has to convert the salinity
level through an intermediate calibration step.
With tremendous improvement both in hardware and software,
smart built-in sensors, good user interface and freely available
applications there has been an ever-increasing demand for smart-
phones across the globe. According to Cisco Visual Networking
Index (VNI), 563 million mobile devices and new connections were
added in 2015 [10]. Incorporation of high speed CPU, increase in
device memory unit and in-built communication facility enables
real time data analysis and interpretation within the smartphone
itself that make smartphones a primary choice for researchers
across the globe to convert it as a low cost, automated sensing
tools for different physical, chemical and biological sensing appli-
cations [11–17]. With high megapixel imaging sensor and ability

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.08.102
0925-4005/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050
to do real time image processing, smartphone finds its applications
in imaging, detection and analysis of different biological samples
[18–24]. In most of the smartphone based platform sensing sys-
tems, the CMOS image sensor of the phone has been explicitly used
for sensing of different chemical and biological samples.
The ambient light sensor (ALS) embedded in front panel of the
smartphone is meant for optimizing battery power consumption
of the phone by controlling brightness of the display panel auto-
matically in accordance with the surrounding environment. Almost
all branded smartphones contain Avago APDS-9930 or ams AG
(TAOS) TMD2771 integrated ambient light and proximity sensor
chip [25,26]. This integrated sensor assembly is composed of one
low power infra-red (IR) LED and two photodiodes in which one
is sensitive to both visible and infra-red light and the second pho-
todiode is sensitive primarily to IR light for proximity detection.
The sensor module includes two built-in ADC for each photodi-
ode channel for conversion of photodiode current into a digital
value. The digital data is then transferred to a register and a built-
in microprocessor reads the digital input signal. Thus, photodiode’s
signal intensity converts into corresponding digital output which
can be displayed in the monitor of the smartphone by using suit-
able smartphone applications. Since the digitally converted output
is proportional to the photocurrent generated in the photodiode
of the smartphone, this easily readable output can be exploited
for various photo-sensitive measurements. Freely available appli-
cations such as ‘Light meter app’ for photo-detection and ‘stanXY
app’ [27,28] for calibrations and data analysis for android platform
smartphones can be a used for direct sensing or measurement of
various parameters. Using the ‘Light meter app’ a large dynamic
range 0–20,000 LUX of the smartphone ALS sensor can be recorded
which eventually can be utilized for intensity modulation based
sensing investigations. Again, using the existing mobile network
facility it is possible to transfer data from remote location to any-
where in the world and real time data analysis can be performed
from the central laboratory. Very recently, we have demonstrated
that using ALS sensor of the smartphone and by using the above
applications, turbidity in drinking water and different environmen-
tal water bodies can be estimated reliably [29]. Using the integrated
flash lamp and the ALS of the smartphone, an optical set-up can be
designed by which one can easily monitor the presence of chemical
and other toxic elements in water sample [30]. In the present work,
we primarily exploit the embedded flash lamp and the ALS of the
smartphone for salinity level detection and analysis of sea water.
In order to estimate the salinity level in sea water we propose two
smartphone optical set-up approaches. While the first technique
is based on Beer-Lambert principle where the intensity of the col-
limated light beam after passing through the saline medium gets
attenuated due to absorption by the medium and the intensity of
the transmitted beam depends on salinity level (or concentration)
of the medium which can be measured accurately and reliably by
the smartphone sensor. The other approach is based on evanes-
cent field absorption from a U-shaped fiber optic sensor which is
coupled to the flash lamp and the ALS of the smartphone. The per-
formances of both the techniques have been compared in terms of
its sensitivity, reproducibility, and its dynamic range. Further, the
experimental data of the sensor responses have been compared
with the standard conductivity meter often used for such purpose.
For both the schemes, the experimentally obtained data have been
analysed in the phone itself using freely available applications.
Owing to its compact size, relatively inexpensive for development
of the sensor, user friendly apps for handling of the sensing systems
and ability to share in-field data through the existing mobile net-
work, we envision that the proposed techniques could emerge as a
potential alternative tool over the existing commercially available
Salinometers in the market.
1043
2. Working principle
2.1. Working principle of smartphone based direct transmission
salinity sensor
Consider a collimated beam passes through an optical medium.
The beam gets attenuated due to absorption by the medium and
the magnitude of absorption depends on the path length and the
concentration of the medium. According to Beer-Lambert principle
[31,32] the intensity of the transmitted light IT can be expressed as
IT = I0 exp (−εcl) (1)
where, I0 is the intensity of the incident light propagating through
the absorbing medium of path length l, c is the concentration of the
solution and ε is the molar absorption co-efficient. From Eq. (1) it
can be inferred that for fixed optical path length, the intensity of
the transmitted light depends on concentration of the medium. In
the first sensing approach, we primarily exploit this principle for
estimating the salinity level of water medium.
2.2. Working principle of smartphone based evanescent field
absorption salinity sensor
In the second sensing scheme, the exponentially decaying
evanescent field from the fiber core-air interface of an uncladded
U-shaped optical fiber has been utilized for development of the
smartphone salinity sensor. Evanescent wave absorption in an
external medium is obtained by removing a certain region of the
cladding of an optical fiber and then bent it to form a U-shaped
fiber probe [33]. If the refractive index of the absorbing medium is
less than the refractive index of the core then the evanescent wave
penetrates a short distance into the low index medium when total
internal reflection occurs at a dielectric interface. The penetration
depth dp is the perpendicular distance from the interface at which
the electric field amplitude E, deceases by 1/e of its value, E0 in the
interface [34]. We can write
 
z
E = E0 exp − (2)
dp
The transmitted power P, of the optical fiber in which the
cladding of length l is locally replaced by an absorbing medium
and is given by
P = P0 exp (−cl) (3)
where, P0 is the power transmitted without the absorbing medium,
 is the evanescent wave absorption co-efficient and c is the
concentration of the medium. The evanescent field absorption
co-efficient for a ray making an angle  with the normal to the
core-cladding interface is given by [35]
εn2 CosCot
␥=  1/2 (4)
2n21 cos2 c sin2  − sin2 c
where, ε is the bulk absorption co-efficient of the absorbing mate-
rial,  is the wavelength of light source,  is the radius of the fiber
core, n1 and n2 are the refractive index of core and cladding, 
is the incident angle at the core-cladding interface and c is the
critical angle of incidence. Since the bulk absorption co-efficient ε
is proportional to the concentration of the medium therefore for
a controlled launching condition the evanescent wave absorption
co-efficient can be related to the concentration of the absorbing
medium. If the sensing region of the optical fiber is bend to a U-
shaped probe then the bending decreases the incident angle of
the ray with the normal to the interface and the incident angle
approaches closer to the critical angle. Thus, from Eqs. (3) and (4)
1044 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050
Fig 1. (a) Schematic of smartphone based direct transmission salinity sensor, (b) photo image of the proposed sensor.
it can be seen that using a U shaped probe the sensitivity of the
evanescent field absorption can be enhanced significantly [33].
3. Materials and method
Laboratory grade Sodium Chloride salt (NaCl) was procured
from SRL, India and artificial sea salt (Red sea coral pro salt) was
procured from amazon, India (product no. B00NBI0KW6). Stan-
dard saline solutions of different salinity level have been prepared
in reagent grade distilled water in parts per thousand (ppt) units.
Saline solution samples of different concentrations of have been
prepared in three different ranges (i) 0 ppt–1 ppt in step incremen-
tal value of 0.1 ppt, (ii) 1 ppt–10 ppt with step incremental value
of 1 ppt and (iii) 10 ppt–100 in step incremental value of 10 ppt.
To evaluate the sensor performance for environmental sea water,
saline solutions of different concentrations have been prepared
from the procured artificial sea salt since it contains all the min-
erals that can be found in real oceanic environment. These saline
samples have been prepared in the range 5 ppt–95 ppt with step
incremental value of 10 ppt.
4. Experimental set-up
4.1. Experimental design of smartphone based direct
transmission salinity sensor
The schematic of the proposed smartphone sensor whose work-
ing principle is based Beer-Lambert principle is shown in Fig. 1(a).
Here, we have used Sony Xperia E3 smartphone for both the sen-
sor modules. The specification of this phone has been provided in
the Supplementary material. Light signal from the flash LED of the
smartphone is coupled to a Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)
multimode optical fiber of diameter 980/1000 ␮m and numerical
aperture 0.51 (product id. 02534, Edmund optics) and the output
light signal from this fiber is coupled to the ALS of the smartphone
via a pair of collimating and focusing lens arrangement which is fol-
lowed by a diffuser. A quartz cuvette that contains the saline water
sample is placed in the optical path between the collimating and the
focusing lens of the designed set-up. A ground glass diffuser (Model
no. HO-DF-50S-32, Holmarc optics, India) is placed in the optical
path between the focusing lens and the ALS of the smartphone
which effectively eliminates the error that occurs due to intensity
fluctuations over the photosensitive area of the ALS. Fig. 1 (b) shows
the photo image of the designed smartphone based salinity sensor.
A coin cell battery is included for dimensional impression of the
designed set-up.
4.2. Experimental design of smartphone based evanescent field
absorption salinity sensor
For the second sensing scheme, a 980/1000 ␮m plastic optical
fiber (Product id. 02534, Edmund optics) has been chosen. Approx-
imately 20 mm of the optical fiber cladding has been removed by
polishing it gently with a zero emery paper and then bent in to form
a U-shaped probe. This uncladded U-shaped fiber probe essentially
forms the sensing region for the second sensing approach for our
smartphone based platform salinometer. The fiber probe is then
fixed in the lid of a sample container. Light signal from flash lamp
of the smartphone is coupled to one end of the fiber while the other
end of it is coupled to the detector via a diffuser in the optical
path between the fiber end and the ALS of the smartphone. The
evanescent field at the sensing region of the fiber interacts effec-
tively with the surrounding medium with enhanced sensitivity and
this can be detected by the ALS of the smartphone. Fig. 2(a) shows
the schematic of the sensing set-up and Fig. 2(b) shows the photo
image of the proposed smartphone sensing set-up.
In order to measure salinity of a medium directly by the phone
two freely available android platform applications, ‘light meter’ and
‘stanXY’ have been used for data acquisition and analysis. All opti-
cal components including the smartphone have been mounted in a
custom developed plastic holder which is made of Nylon. The inner
wall of the Nylon block is blackened so that affect of the ambi-
ent light can be neglected. Low cost, high mechanical strength and
superior resistance to wear from chemicals make Nylon material
a primary choice for fabricating the optical holder in the present
investigation. The overall dimension of the setup is measured to
be 140 mm in length, 80 mm in both breadth and 40 mm in width
and the weight of the designed sensor along with the phone is
approximately 250 g.
5. Workflow of the smartphone applications
Fig. 3 shows the process flow of the proposed smartphone based
salinity measuring device. The freely available ‘Light meter’ app for
android smartphone measures the intensity of the light beam trans-
mitted through the sample in LUX unit. This specific app measures
the average value through recording of minimum and the maxi-
mum variation of the intensity for a specific period of time. The
digital output is then normalized by dividing with the intensity
value when the sample holder contains only distilled water and
normalized sensor response was computed. To plot the variation
of sensor data with change in salinity level of the medium another
free app ‘stanXY’ has been used in the present work. Using this
app a calibration curve of the absorbance values for standard saline
media was first obtained. To estimate the salinity of an unknown
medium, the observed sensor data is then plotted in the standard
 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050 1045

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic of smartphone based evanescent field absorption salinity sensor, (b) photo image of the designed sensor.

calibration curve and from the plotted data, the salinity value of a
medium has been estimated. Thus, using simple optical set-up and
two free applications, the salinity of any unknown samples can be
estimated easily with both of the designed sensing set-ups.
6. Results and discussion
Prior to start of the investigation, the performance of the smart-
phone ALS sensor has been evaluated for different incident light
wavelength. Three different optical filters with optical pass wave-
length of 460 nm, 540 nm and 635 nm have been placed one by
one in the optical set-up of Fig. 1.We then introduce 10 samples
of different salinity level in the range 0–100 ppt in the optical path
of the set-up and the sensor responses have been recorded. Fig. 4
describes the sensor response curves for the three different inci-
dent wavelengths recorded by the designed sensing system for all
the considered samples. These experimental data clearly indicate
that as compared to 460 nm and 540 nm incident wavelength light
signal, the response of the designed sensor is found to be more sen-
sitive for 635 nm incident light signal. This is attributed to the peak
spectral response of the embedded photo detector of the ALS of the
smartphone, which is found to be highest in the wavelength range
600–700 nm and a 635 nm incident radiation overlaps fairly with
the peak spectral response of the embedded photo-detector. This
preliminary investigation infers that a 635 nm incident radiation
would be suitable for the present sensing studies.
6.1. Evaluation of sensor performance for both the sensor
modules
Upon confirming the incident radiation wavelength suitable for
the present sensing investigation the sensor performances have
been evaluated for both the schemes described in Figs. 1 and 2.
Fig. 5 describes the sensor responses measured by the smartphone
for both approaches for the considered samples. We observe sim-
ilar trend in sensor responses for both the schemes. Compared to

Fig. 3. Workflow of the smartphone applications for salinity measurement of water samples.
1046 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050

responses for both the schemes for media with salinity value rang-
ing from 0 to 1 ppt. Clearly, as compared to direct coupling scheme,
with U-bent fiber sensing probe a higher sensitivity (which is the
ratio of the change in sensor response to change in salinity level) has
been observed. The higher sensitivity for the U-shaped fiber probe
is attributed to the enhanced evanescent light signal coupling from
the sensing region to the surrounding absorbing medium. Further,
among the two designed schemes, the linearity in sensor response
for U-shaped fiber probe is found to better (with correlation coef-
ficient r ∼ 0.99386) than the first scheme (correlation coefficient
r ∼ 0.93608) in the salinity range 0–1 ppt. The error bars shown
in this figure represents the standard deviations for 5 consecutive
measurements of each sample.

Fig. 4. The response characteristic curve of smartphone ALS for different wave- 6.2. Evaluation of sensor characteristics for both the proposed
length. sensing schemes

direct transmission scheme, the sensitivity for the U-bent optical The evaluation of sensor characteristics for both the sensor mod-
fiber probe is however found to be higher. The responses of the ules have been carried out and corresponding sensor parameters
sensors are found to be piece-wise linear for both the schemes. The has been compared. The Detailed analysis of all the necessary sens-
inset in the same figure shows the zoom-in view of the sensors ing parameters has been discussed in the sub-sections given below:

Fig. 5. Response curve for both the sensor module for salinity range 0 ppt–100 ppt.
 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050 1047

Fig. 6. Uncertainty in measurement for both the sensing module for the salinity Fig. 7. Stability measurement data of solution with salinity of 35 ppt for both the
range 0 ppt–1 ppt. sensor module.

6.2.1. Evaluation of sensitivity

The sensitivity of the proposed sensor modules has been eval- 6.2.4. Evaluation of repeatability characteristics
uated from the sensor response curve shown in Fig. 5 using the The repeatability characteristic of the designed sensors has also
following equation: been evaluated. To perform this investigation, we choose 10 saline
sample solutions in the salinity range 10 ppt–100 ppt. Experimen-
Sensitivity = S/P (5) tal data for these samples have been recorded for increasing and
decreasing order of salinity level for 3 consecutive cycles in both the
where, S the change in sensor response and P is the change in
sensing schemes. The repeatability characteristic of the designed
salinity value of the prepared solutions. The sensitivity for the direct
sensors is shown in Fig. 8. The characteristic curves clearly show
transmission salinity sensor is calculated to be 0.02 AU/ppt and
that both the designed sensors exhibit high repeatability behavior.
for the fiber based evanescent field absorption sensor, this value
These investigations have been performed for three weeks and sim-
is 0.07 AU/ppt. This indicates that the uncladded U-shaped fiber
ilar responses have been observed in all trials for both the schemes.
probe offers higher sensitivity than that of the absorption sensor
with direct transmission scheme.
6.2.5. Evaluation of detection limit (DL)
6.2.2. Determination uncertainty in measurement The detection limit for the proposed sensor modules has been
The uncertainty in salinity measurements has been estimated estimated according to ICH guideline [37]. According to this guide-
for both schemes. Sensor responses of the designed sensors for line, the detection limit in an analytical measurement is estimated
both the schemes have been measured for samples with salinity as
value ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 ppt. For each sample, measurement
has been taken for 10 times and the uncertainty in sensor read- DL = 3.3 /s (6)
ing has been estimated. Fig. 6 shows the characteristic uncertainty
readings measured by the two approaches for all the considered
samples. The maximum uncertainty reading for direct light trans-
mission method is found to be 0.017 ppt while with the fiber optic
sensing probe this value is measured to be 0.011 ppt. These values
clearly indicate that with both the smartphone platform sensing
schemes, salinity level variation as low as 0.1 ppt can be measured
accurately and reliably.

6.2.3. Stability analysis

Both the sensing schemes have been proposed with a vision
that the designed sensors would be useful for estimation of salinity
level in sea water. Salinity level of sea water is generally found
in the range 34–35 ppt [36]. Using standard sea salt, a sample
medium with salinity value 35 ppt has been prepared in the lab-
oratory and the sensor response for this specific medium has been
observed for 2 h by our designed sensors. The responses for both the
schemes have been recorded in 10 min of interval. Fig. 7 illustrates
the time varying sensor characteristic curves for both the sensors
measured for the considered sample. Fairly stable readings for both
the schemes have been observed. While with the direct transmis-
sion scheme a small fluctuation has been observed, the fiber sensing Fig. 8. Repeatability test for both the sensor module with solutions of salinity range
scheme yields fairly stable reading. 10 ppt–100 ppt.
1048 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050
Table 1
Comparison of different sensing parameters for both the sensor module.
Sensor parameters direct light coupling salinity sensor
Sensitivity 0.02 AU/ppt
Residual standard deviation (RSD) 0.0008 AU
Uncertainty 0.017 ppt
Linearity (r) Sensing range 93%
1–100 ppt
Detection limit (DL) 0.13 ppt
where, and s are the residual standard deviation (RSD) of the
response and slope of the calibration curve. To measure the DL for
both the sensors, we consider the calibration curve shown in Fig. 5
in the range 0–1 ppt. The RSD and slope has been evaluated from
this curve and the DL of the designed sensor is estimated using the
Eq. (6). The DL for the direct transmission salinity sensor is found
to be 0.13 ppt while for the U-shaped fiber optic probe this value is
estimated to be 0.04 ppt.
6.2.6. Evaluation of sensing range for both the sensor modules
The evaluation of uncertainty in measurements signifies that
with direct transmission based sensing scheme, a higher measure-
ment error is obtained in the range 0–1 ppt with co-efficient of
determination R2 = 0.90322. It shows piece-wise linear trend for
higher salinity values. The sensing range for this specific scheme is
observed to be sensitive in the range 1–100 ppt. The uncertainty in
measurement for U-shaped fiber sensing probe is however found
to be much less than the direct light coupling sensing scheme with
co-efficient of determination R2 = 0.98488 in the salinity range of
0–1 ppt. This indicates that the sensing range for the former scheme
could be suitable for 0–100 ppt.
Important sensing parameters such as sensitivity, residual stan-
dard deviation, uncertainty, sensing range and DL have been
evaluated for both the designed sensors. Table 1 summarizes the
performance comparison for these parameters as yielded by both
the schemes.
Finally, the performances of both the sensing schemes have
been compared with the laboratory grade conductivity meter usu-
ally used for estimating the salinity level of sea water. Saline
Fig. 9. Histogram representation of comparison of salinity measurement of prepared water samples by the standard conductivity meter and by our smartphone salinity
sensing module.
U-shaped fiber probe salinity sensor
0.07 AU/ppt
0.0009 AU
0.011 ppt
99%
0–100 ppt
0.04 ppt
solutions of random salinity value using artificial sea salt have been
prepared in the laboratory and the salinity level of the prepared
samples has been initially measured with the standard conductivity
meter (3540 Bench conductivity meter, Bibby Scientific) in ␮s/cm
and then converted the value into corresponding salinity ppt units
[38]. The salinity of the prepared samples were then measured by
our designed sensing systems. Fig. 9 describes the histogram repre-
sentation of the experimental sensor data for the two smartphone
platform sensors and the standard tool. These data again clearly
indicate that almost similar sensor response have been observed
for all the three situations. For direct light coupling scheme, the
error associated with the experimental data is found to be high in
low level of saline medium. This is attributed to low absorbance
of the medium for low salinity level due to which a relatively high
intensity of light signal is being received by the smartphone ALS.
This may cause fluctuations in the sensor readings. On the other
hand, with fiber optic sensing set-up we observe fairly linear and
comparable data as that of the standard tool-conductivity meter
used for the present work.
The proposed two smartphone sensing schemes are useful in
transmitting the in-field experimental data from remote location
to the central laboratory or anywhere in the world through the
existing mobile network facility. Owing to the involvement of rel-
atively low cost components and relatively simple optical set-up
we envision that the designed sensing system could emerge as an
inexpensive alternative to its commercially available counterparts
with added advantages of having ability to monitor and analyze
in-field sensing data from the central laboratory. Fluctuations of
temperature and pressure may affect the measurement data, since
 I. Hussain et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 239 (2017) 1042–1050
salinity variation depends on the temperature and pressure. On-
site calibration and detection in ambient environment may reduce
the error due to fluctuations of such physical parameters. In envi-
ronmental water samples presence of turbidity may be an issue
for false measurement since presence of suspended particle may
scatter light signal and hence may affect the sensor data. Neces-
sary filtration of such water samples is required before measuring
salinity levels using the proposed designed sensors.
7. Conclusion
In summary, the workings of smartphone integrated salinity
sensors using two different sensing modalities have been demon-
strated. The in-built flash lamp and ALS of the smartphone have
been used as source and detector, which eventually makes the
proposed sensors as a stand-alone salinity sensor for in-situ deter-
mination of salinity in water medium. Two different android
platform applications have been used for detection and data
analysis. Use of smartphone makes it possible for real time commu-
nication and data sharing from any remote location to the central
water quality monitoring unit. The salinity values of different saline
medium ranging from 0 to 100 ppt have been successfully mea-
sured by both the proposed sensing systems. The designed sensor
modules are suitable for salinity monitoring in oceanographic stud-
ies and also can be used by diabetic patients for monitoring their
daily salt intake. The performance of the sensor has been compared
with the commercial conductivity meter and good correlation has
been observed. The proposed sensing device may also finds appli-
cations in other clinical and biological investigations which will be
performed in the future course of work.
Acknowledgement
P. Nath gratefully acknowledges the valuable guidance received
from B. Cunningham on similar line of work during visit to Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbane Champaign, USA. Authors thank P.
Kalita, Department of Civil Engineering (TU) for assistance with the
standard conductivity meter measurements. Authors also acknowl-
edge the support received from Workshop, Mechanical Engineering
Department (TU) for developing of the plastic holder for the present
work. I. Hussain acknowledges the financial support received from
UGC, New Delhi for awarding Maulana Azad National fellowship
for Minority students 2014–15 (Grant no.F117.1/201415/MANF-
201415- MUS-ASS-34147).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.08.102.
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Biographies
Iftak Hussain received the M.Sc degree in Physics from Tezpur University, Napaam,
India, and currently pursuing his PhD degree from Tezpur University. His current
research interests include design and development of smartphone integrated sen-
sors for water quality monitoring and fiber optic sensor design.
Munmun Das has completed her master of science (M.Sc) in Physics from Tezpur
University, in 2016. Her current research interests include fiber optic sensors, Smart-
phone platform sensing systems and optical devices.
Pabitra Nath received the M.Sc degree in Physics from Tezpur University, Napaam,
India, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics science from Gauhati University, Guwahati,
India, in 2000 and 2009, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor with the
Department of Physics, Tezpur University. He has visited Micro and Nano Tech-
nology Laboratory (MNTL), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, through BOYSCAST fellowship
program 2010–2011 sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Gov-
ernment of India. His current research interests include fiber optics sensors and
system, Smartphone platform sensing systems, SERS and optical bio-sensing sys-
tems.

Kamal Uddin Ahamad received B. Tech degree from NIT Bhopal M. Tech and PhD
degree both from IIT Guwahati. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the
Department of Civil Engineering, Tezpur University. His current research interests
include Water treatment, Low-cost treatment Technology, Water Quality, Waste
management.

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