Dust accumulates at specific spots in a household - determined by air flow, surface and ingredients of dust (hair, light dust, heavy dust, electrostatic dust). Some of these hotspots are in plain sight, and can be adressed every time one hoovers, others are not found until the next time a piece of furniture is moved.
I propose a mixture of differently sized/formed dust particles that are RFID detectable and identifyable. This dust is scattered in specific locations around the house, then it's progress towards it's final resting place is tracked. This way the migration routes of the different dusts are identified (for possible intervention) and all the dust hotspots are discovered, and can be adressed.
For a biological way to do this, use quorum sensing mold on dust, and detect it's specific reaction to accumulation via a trained dog sniffing it out. No real-time tracking with this one, but the hotspots are found, too.
With some modelling software it might even be possible to move the hotspots to easily reached yet out-of-sight areas, via subtle rearrangement of furniture, ventilators, changes in dust components, anti-static spray in strategic locations etc.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 A novel method to detect unlabeled inorganic nanoparticles and submicron particles in tissue by sedimentation field-flow fractionation http://www.particle....com/content/5/1/18Close enough? [Aristotle, Apr 21 2009] Dust RFID http://www.technove...ews.asp?NewsNum=939Small, but not nano [loonquawl, Apr 22 2009] Subwoofer Air Cleaner Subwoofer_20Air_20CleanerShameless shelf promotion [csea, Apr 22 2009] Some companies are starting to produce custom-made, recognisable nano- particles for security purposes.-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009 You'd need to produce your 'tracer dust' in a range of weights, sizes and with a range of aerodynamic properties, as the pattern of air currents in a house might sort the dust by these characteristics into different resting places.-- hippo, Apr 21 2009 [hippo]:That is what i tried to say
//mixture of differntly sized/formed dust// (spelling now corrected)
[Aristotle]: These nano-particles are not identifyable at range, as far as i know, otherwise they would be the perfect choice for extending this idea to clean-room testing-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 Hah, all you needed was "sedimentation field-flow fractionation" (see link). Simple really.-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009 right - living in an ultracentrifuge would make this easily achievable, without resorting to rfid.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 Sometimes, for the sake of science, you have to make sacrifices ...-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009 (marked-for-tagline)
"Sometimes, for the sake of science, you have to make sacrifices"-- normzone, Apr 21 2009 "Nano" was brought into the discussion by commentators - Dust, i was talking about. see link.-- loonquawl, Apr 22 2009 Another approach to avoid the dust settling in the first place: [link].
Hmm, maybe the linked idea should reside as a subcategory here, i.e.: <home: cleaning: dust: audiophile>.-- csea, Apr 22 2009 great, nano Feng Shui for dust spirits.-- wjt, Apr 22 2009 random, halfbakery