alt Hacker NewsI think the issue is that the common tech requires sensors in an air-chamber. E.g. NDIR works by firing IR at a frequency that is absorbed by CO2. A sensor on the other side either measures the amount of IR light that got through (optical NDIR) or pressure/sound waves (photoacoustic NDIR). I guess that it's hard to use any existing sensors, because they are relatively large and probably water could easily get into the chamber.
Would be extremely cool if Apple, Samsung, and others can crack this, though I think they'd have done it already if it was easy.
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Oxygen sensors used in car catalyst systems use a different effect based on electrochemistry. I see no reason that couldn't be minuaritized to grain-of-sand size.
The question is if oxygen levels are as good an indicator as CO2 levels... I suspect not.
Mesh with the other Apple/et al devices in the room to take multiple samples and aggregate the results for an overall picture of the ambient co2
Sensiron STCC4 uses thermal conductivity sensing thats very compact (4x4x1.2mm). It's pretty new to the market, but maybe in the future it'll happen.