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NASA's E-Nose: It Smells, But It's Improving

Posted by timothy on from the sir-do-you-have-anything-to-declare? dept.

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?

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. We can install them in elevators! by darylp · · Score: 5

    That way we can always know with pinpoint accuracy who REALLY farted!

  2. Old joke... by Psiren · · Score: 4

    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.

  3. Possible uses for an e-nose by Raindeer · · Score: 5
    Well the following three uses come to my mind:

    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
  4. Human Implant by Hrunting · · Score: 4

    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.