Joking aside now, and its good to see everyone has a great sense of humour ! A good source of sensor ideas is Robert Bosch Gmbh, the people who make car electronics and motors. They have a wide range of acceleration, gas, pressure, flow, temperature and other sensors tough enough for the incredibly nasty environment under the bonnet (hood) of a car.

The IR method is a neat one, I like the idea very much. Any app notes ?


Steve

PS Rob is right in a way, but birds are in general much much more sensitive to gas concentrations than we are, its their metabolic rate.