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Digital Nose
Tekmage writes "How long until someone equips Sony's Aibo to sniff out contamination at the old chemical plant?
Cyrano Sciences describes a little of the technology behind their 'Nose Chip' here, and includes some neat examples."
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Just how reliable is that? Had a quick browse of the link but cant seem to find any result...
Or you could use the nose attached to your face
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
This has actually been out since last year. This and other related technologies are heating up, as improved processing techniques and new applications for existing technology provide design engineers with ideas. The problem with false results are due more to poor data processing than to poor information acquisition. On a related note, Texas Instruments has developed a device that can analyze any liquid sample and give results on-site without using a mass spectrometer. Spreeta Sensor. It is the size of a phono cartridge.
Read a preview of my novel CYBERCHILD at www.smartalix.com/cyberchild
Read a book entitled "Murder in the Solid State".
it is Near term SciFi about abuses of exactly this kind of technology.
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
To be honest, it's the false negatives that have me more worried...
:-)
I don't expect to see real dogs replaced any time soon, but given the amount I travel, I would feel a little more comfortable if we could, say, equip every garbage can and mail-drop at an airport with the bomb-sniffing equivalent of a smoke detector.
Given the breadth of substances the sensor can identify and differentiate (over existing explosive-specific sniffer tech), I would expect the number of false positives to go down with some intelligent signal processing. If you know that Vodka triggers the warning, this is a false-positive "noise factor" you could filter out. (in theory
--The more you know, the less you know.
Indeed. Add the < smell > tag to html.
I wonder if you could represent a smell graphically.
I can see one running around at a party or in a bar either set up as a "pointer" (as in dog) or with indicator lights reporting the chemically based inferred sexual receptivity of the individuals present. Perhaps future miniature versions in jewelry could track the subjects and report real-time changes as time, ingestion, and company had effects!
*** "It's only trivia until you need it." JMR ***
...so I don't have to be bothered with knowing the date(or the year) when I want some milk.
:)
Hey machine, is this milk good
I wish I had the link, but I read somewhere that the French have a prototype for reproducing smells. The creators claimed that any smell can be synthesized by mixing 6 basic substances, so the appliance would have 6 containers and a mechanism to control the amount of each. It was first conceived as an add-on to videocassetes, but once it works in production it would be a snap to have this in computers.
Picture if you would tags like
<SMELL type="leather" intensity="high" persistance="volatile">
-------------------------
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"People ask FAQs all the time". - David Allen
Damn, I hope microsoft stays out of this market!
Imagine:
"I upgraded ms-vision with latest service pack and now my ms-smell isn't working..."
In a nutshell, I (Pvt. So-and-so) put a white glove on my hand, and go through a truck, wiping every imaginable surface with it. Then I give the glove to the mass spec guy (Sgt. Whats-his-name). Then mass spec sez (or supposed to) whether the truck was in contact with explosives. E.g. if the driver touched explosives recently, the steering wheel and everything else he touched will be contaminated. Next truck, next glove.
I've seen this device tested. A bit of regular gunpowder was smeared on the ground, and the ground touched with the glove. Bzzt! Alarm.
The mass spec however is not a handheld device. Very, very far from it.
"Cyrano Sciences"? Making devices which can smell? I love it! :)
:)
(For the literary-impaired: Cyrano de Bergerac had a big nose.
Added to this, modern hearing aids attach electronics directly into the inner ear, with vibration sensors outside the ear, to make people who would previously have been deaf, or almost deaf, hear perfectly again.
This chip means (I guess) that we could do to smell what has been done to sight and hearing. All we need to fill the five senses now are electronic tongues (and I believe those exist already) and electronic nerves, with an interface to the brain.
The way I see it, injury-related (as opposed to genetic dystrophic disease related) paralysis could be a thing of the past in about 30 years... now if we could only persuade people to have less fear of science, we might be able to preemp things like muscular dystrophy by then too.
Why is it that the Mary Shelleys of this world always turn up on the cusp of centuries?
Dave Neary.
Nose chip? Well, its not quite my dream ass chip yet, but dangnabbit is cience isn't getting closer -- just at the wrong end of the body. >
"This post was pointless. If this post has had a point, it would have stood up and waved a little blue flag that says 'hey, I have a point here.'"
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
There are a number of computerized sinffers available and have been for quite a while. Some that yes, even sniff for drugs. One was even approved by the government. Very cheesy site but contains alot of information. Also there are many others that are here.
-
off and out
Sony's AIBO site is http://www.world.sony.com/aibo, _NOT_ www.aibo.com!! The latter is some fan-created site...
I have an account, and some moderation points. Now I can moderate my own AC posts (such as one above) up! (Or down.) (No, I will not. Must...resist...temptation...) Geez, now I see how some folks get +1 bonus. Two accounts.
Someone can carry one of these little devices into a KFC and settle the "is it eleven herbs and spices or just monosodium glutemate and pepper?" argument. :)
This just for the handhels unit shown here I'll bet that they can get this thing down to the size of a watch, and it'll be the next yuppie thing. Hell, I might. buy one if it came down to the 2K range.
Could this be used as a robot bloodhound? They claim that it can work in almost any environment, but how good is it at distinguishing similar odours?
The article claims it can be used for testing if two smells are similar, I'm guessing that this is one of the things it is realy good at. But is it better than a real dog? Can this device be used to help obsure contraband by acting as a simple test to see if the contraband can be smelt?
-no broken link
It would take more than a "nose" for aibo to do something useful. Unfortunately, due to Sony marketing hype, most people are misled to believe aibo has a dog's capabilities. He could emulate some doggy behaviours, for sure. However, he has absolutely no idea where he is, thus cannot do anything useful. He is a toy and nothing but a toy (albeit for big kids). He could do nothing useful (except "entertaining" big kids). Anyway, why sniffed by a dog-a-like machine? Should not it be more efficient, if the sniffing devices are embedded inside cargo or conveyor belt handlers?
I wonder how many false positives would come from hunters, gun owners, and around the 4th of July...
It's regrettable that most readers could easily be misled by the sale pitch "dog" for aibo by Sony and the media. Obviously, aibo "dog" is not a dog. But still, most readers fell into a trap believing aibo could do what a dog could. It is easy, tempting, and "natural" to interpolate aibo's capabilities from a dog's, but this is wrong. To suggest aibo can do useful things, like sniffing in airport (assuming it got the "nose" retrofit), is unfortunately ignorant. Aibo is a toy, treat it as a toy, a very expensive one. To use aibo as a tool, instead of a toy, it needs to be fitted with much more advanced mechanisms, like the ones found in CYE. Furthermore, complex motors and mechanical parts found in aibo legs are prone to fail. Wanna have some useful tool? First thing first, keep it simple, baby!
But seriously, imagine a smoke detector that could distinguish between cigarette smoke, wood/paper smoke (from a fireplace), smoke from a grease fire, etc. How about a "is this really sanitary?" sensor for a house-cleaning 'bot? For that matter, I would think that hospitals could use something that keys off of olafactory cues. What about a Mars Rover type robot (assuming we ever relearn the landing-on-Mars trick) that sniffs for water vapor (as in ice deposits) or other potential "life" indicators while it's poking at rocks? Heck, I could probably use a device to warn me that I've gotten carried away with the after-shave before a date...
"I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
C.D.B.'s nose is no longer than Howard Stern's. Steve Martin's in Roxanne, on the other hand...
So why didn't they call it Pinocchio? He had a big nose too.
(Sorry, that was Clinton. Look halfway down this page.)
--
Don't click here.
Will I retire or break 10K?
With the advances in cybernetic replacement technology, I was able to produce effective arms and legs. With the great strides in Fuel Cell technology made by NASA, I was able to provide a power source mounted in the torso which is totally environmentally friendly. With computing advances, a fair degree of intelligence, easily upgradable. Miniaturisation of cameras, speakers and microphones provided eyes, ears and a voice. Now, finally, my creation will be able to smell the world too. A slave, with no volition other than to serve me. I shall mount her inside a premium sex-doll, and she shall be mine. Mmm-hmm.
Wow that's something else. I can just see it now. :-)
Walking thru the airport getting sniffed
by an aibo. At least it can't get stoned.
BTW. Whatever happened to using birds to sniff stuff out?
We've had WebCams for ages, how about someone
doing a WebNose?
I want one that will sniff b**lsh*t. I would just point it at a press release by M$/AOL/whoever and it would tell me how much rubbish was in it :-) so i could decide whether to get a grain of salt
Wow, this thing only ways about 2lb /0.91kg.
Could this be used as a robot bloodhound? They claim that it can work in almost any environment, but how good is it at distinguishing similar odours?
...but for some reason they decided against using it in AIBO
ALPHABET PRONOUNCIATION SUPPORTERS UNITE!
be bee bei bey
One of the guys I work with was on a project years ago which used a mass spec to 'sniff' explosives and other illegal substances. Well one day they decided to test it live at the Port of Dover ( UK ), one of the trucks comming off the ship triggered the sniffer and so they searched it. Nothing was found so they then stripped the whole truck, still nothing. It turns out the the container on the truck had been cleaned out with washing up liquid and this had triggered the sniffer, they had only tested with illegal substances and not anything else.
Quite a few I'd have guessed.
I remember when the explosive sniffers were new, they claimed to be able to detect someone who had shaken hands with someone who had shaken hands with someone who had been handling explosives.
Will it sniff out stinkies? Kernel panic!
What we have here is A NEW TOY FOR OSHA!
realaroma.com may have something about this. However, it eerily resembles GenitalDrive...
Now what's on the smellevision tonight?
Will I retire or break 10K?
First of all, the mechanical-sniffing technology isn't exactly new. I have witnessed it in several airports, sometimes with rather amusing results. For instance, a bottle of Vodka will trigger an explosive warning, whereas a bottle of single malt scotch will not.
So the really interesting question to ask is how prone this new device is to trigger on completely unrelated substances - there is not much point in using this as a replacement for drug or bomb dogs, if it overloads the staff checking the positives. Sooner or later this will lead to a situation where a real bomb or firearm passes undetected onto an airplane because of the last 100 false positives.
So, does anybody have any idea if this thing is better at staying focused on what really matters?
//Wegge
This could be used to step up enforcement of drug laws. Imagine police with hand-held devices that can detect traces of cocaine, marijuana, &c. When these devices find a trace, they can at the touch of a button call a base and get a (digitally signed, automated) search warrant, within seconds.
A few decades in the future, there may even be clouds of near-ubiquitous drug-sniffer robots, each the size of a grain of pollen. These would be able to notify the police whenever and wherever drugs were detected.
Might not be healthy, having clouds of machinery floating in the air we breathe, but it's For Our Own Good.
BTW, it's not a medical problem, it's a socio-economic problem. You can't force everyone to be tested and tatoo the result on their body, but if HIV turned the whites of people's eyes permanently lime green overnight, there wouldn't be much worry about too many new cases.