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NASA's E-Nose: It Smells, But It's Improving
ahaning writes: "Yes, even NASA has succumbed to the "e + (someword)" phenomenon. The E-Nose is apparently one of the toys they took along with them on the last shuttle mission. NASA engineers are currently working on making the tool smaller and enabling it to "sniff" out more chemicals. One of the more interesting uses that they give for us on earth is determining whether a plant is ripe enough for harvest. Perhaps someday we could have huge robots out in the middle of a field with nanobugs roaming the place, checking the fruits and vegetables. When they find a ripe one, they signal the robot with their position and it reaches out and plucks the thing carefully off of the plant. That would be cool." Anti-counterfiting, explosive detection, apply-deodorant alert ... the possibilities are endless. What would you use an electronic nose for?
I would use it in my fridge to find if that pizza is still ok(and how old some things are in there without the Carbon 14 dating) :
It is a geeks dream to sit behind your computer and recive an mial like
Trom : frige@y2kbunker.net
To : root@foo.net
Subject : Pizza and Milk
WARNING pizza is getting bad, must be eaten before the end of the day
NOTICE The lifeforms in the milkjar have just invented the wheel.
42
"Follow the electronic nose! It always knows!"
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
As if. Almost all fresh fruit is picked before it is mature, and brought to maturity artificially during shipping.
The immature fruit are less susceptible to handling damage.
So they pick before it's ready, add dyes to make it look good, and ripen it during shipping or storage, or don't even bother ripening it at all, and let consumers think that the fruit is ripening at home, when it's really just going bad.
Almost no one that is reading this has tasted truly fresh, tree-ripened fruit.
You wouldn't believe how good it is.
Especially worth trying to get is a vine-ripened tomato. You'll quite buying that crap they sell at the store!
(ah, but the same can be said for peaches and nectarines!)
(I won't mention canned fruit. Shudder.)
--
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Scratch 'n sniff - movies in "Smell-o-rama" - the upcoming 'tele-fragrance' will soon be available to enhance your web browsing experience. A very old "Popular Electronics" mag had a 'Carl and Jerry' episode involving a fragrance synthesizer - but for the "e-nose" some microwave ovens have some kind of organic molecule sensor to help determine when the meal was 'done', as a general rule (not always true) once you can smell it it's about ready.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Having just read Farenheit 451 (sat on my bookshelf for 5 years, but I was prodded to action by a recent slashdot review), I'd want what every good totalitarian state official would want -- one of them mechanical hounds. Of course, I'd only use it for good...
Tweet, tweet.
I agree that sensors could be an important safety measure, but I'd strongly suggest then gas companies add a better tracer (or directly test for a component of the gas itself) The current tracers (like butyl mercaptan) were chosen because the human nose can pick them up ay extraordinary dilutions, probably near the limit of sensor resolution. (so an e-nose trying to be as sensitive than a human nose will have many false positive. Depending on who you listen to, a single drop (or ml or oz.) of butyl mercaptan would fill the AstroDome football stadium with detectable odor.
BTW I know its none of my business (and I have no idea of your step-sister's situation), but anosmia -- the loss of the sense of smell -- is absolutely no impediment to independent living. It would be a shame for someone to have their entire life molded by such a foolish misconception (Any MD will confirm that anosmics can live alone -- It's actually not an uncommon condition.)
The Olfactory nerve is actually not a nerve at all but a direct extension of the brain (a tract). The nucleus/soma (main body) of the cells in this nerve are actually in the brain itself, and the 'nerve' is just made of extensions called axons. The olfactory nerve is entirely wrapped in the same meninges as the rest of the brain
The olfactory tract extends to cover a thin, spongy, perforated region of bone (the cribiform plate) where it synapses (links to) cells that send ultra thin tendrils, often single axons through the bone to the "roof of the upper nose" (the area above the superior turbinate or concha)
A blow to the head can partially or totally detach the nerve as it passes to or through the cribiform plate. Many other things can cause temporary or permanent loss of smell, where 'temporary' may mean 'years' (BTW -- loss of the sense of smell is the first, usually unnoticed, sign of Alzheimers)
Sounds like Step-mom doesn't think step-sis is ready to live on her own (and she may be right, but using an excuse like this is inappropriate.
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
That way we can always know with pinpoint accuracy who REALLY farted!
My Aibo has no e-nose.
;-)
How does it smell?
Terrible!
Oh come on, someone has to say it!
Now weary traveller, rest your head. For just like me, you're utterly dead.
1. Smelling if food can still be eaten, or if it has evolved too far already. Very handy in dorms like mine
2. Smelling out female feromones, this way you don't need to spend all that money on a girl who doesn't like you anyways. Along the same line would be an application that tells you the perfume she is wearing. Makes good pick-up lines.
3. Lie-detector, based on the increase in sweating of a person. Crude, but it might help in finding out if the Market-droid really is telling the truth
There might also be more sound uses, but then again, technology is never used for the things it was intended for.
Use Adsense for Charity
I think drugs are a problem for our society, with the possible exception of marajuna, which is, IMHO, far less harmful than tobacco.
Whilst I agree with your post in general, I think that the only reason drugs are a problem for society is because of the whole war on drugs and the attitude it has spawned - do you consider alcohol to be a problem for society despite the fact that it is worse than a lot of illegal drugs?
No, drugs can be very bad for individuals given misuse, as with anything, but their effects on society are minimal. Look at Holland, where they have been decriminalised. Does the society suffer for it? No, individuals might, but their society seems pretty damn stable and sane to me.
As for drug tests et al, they're such a bad idea. Not only are they invasive and a threat to your personal privacy, but a lot of the people I know who do a hell of a lot of drugs work in those sorts of places anyway and go out every weekend and get fucked. Doesn't seem to have made them lose their jobs because they're drug-crazed wasters...
Oh yeah, sorry about the rant.
(Sorry to perpetuate a geek stereotype, but I've been exposed to it often enough... :-)
It's a geek accessory. It can smell. Therefore its default driver installation should take an occasional sniff, and if events merit, should display a message box saying GO TAKE A SHOWER .*
Sean.
* Also useful - a BURN OLD SNEAKERS and CHECK DOG STILL ALIVE messages.
Sean Remove zebras from e-mail address to reply.
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
I'm not sure what it should be used for, but I can tell you what it will be used for: electronic drug dogs. Posted on every street corner, at every building entrance.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
First, it will give us a web device to transmit smell, then it will give us an e-nose, so we don't have to smell our own peripheral!
What could be more convenient then smelling the roses from the convenience of your own desk? Having the computer smell the e-roses for you. Once we perfect the e-toilet, you'll never have to leave your cubicle again.
-- dR.fuZZo
What's the likelihood that this thing can be adapted for human use? I mean, Stevie Wonder is supposedly going to try getting his vision back through some artificial means. What about people with no smell? That's not a joke, BTW. My stepsister really doesn't have a sense of smell. Her mother won't let her live alone because she can't smell things like gas leaks or burning food in the oven.
Speaking of which, possible uses for this include alarm systems that trigger when certain odors (like the odor added to gas) are detected or warning lights in car when odors like burning oil are detected. I bet a real market for something like this can be had in alarms and triggers based on smell.
Not news.
The electronic nose was developed 10 years ago at U.M.I.S.T in Manchester, UK.
http://www.dias.umist.ac.uk/
I hated the place when I was there (Still do, Manchester's a dump) but they definitely had an electronic nose.
The guys who developed it also started a company to sell the things (aromascan).
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I'm curious at to why you believe that that would be a good thing. Do you approve of the rediculous efforts spent on the whole "War on Drugs" and the significant blows to individual liberty that it has bought with it? Having electronic drug sniffers on every street corner, whilst maybe effective, sounds like as big an invasion of privacy as any I can imagine.
Now, I may be a bit biased here, enjoying drugs on a recreational level here myself, but even apart from that I've still yet to hear a single good reason why drugs in general are such a menace to society that they must be demonised and their users treated as the worst kind of criminal.
There's an article here at SmokeDot about how and why marijuana became illegal, and I think it illustrates some of the petty reasons they became illegal in the first place, even though now those reasons have been buried.