Posted by
timothy
on from the the-nose-knows dept.
pdiaz writes: "Nature has an interesting
article
about detecting mines by their ...smell... before they are reached." Sort of a floating artificial nose -- looks cheaper than a hole in the boat.
This technology looks interesting, but I am curious if it will extend to odor-sensitive devices available for a wider range of scents. Imagine a security device that ensured that each person smelled right before allowing entry (similar to a dog, but not distracted by food).
...And then you switch to a different brand of deodourant...
While smell is probably too variable to use as a security device, sensors like this certainly exist. There was a flurry of annoucements over the past year about "biochip" sensor array that could measure more or less arbitrary sets of chemicals in air or water. You could also go the old-fashioned route and install a gas chromatograph in the building's entrance annex (briefcase-sized combined mass spectrometer/gas chromatograph devices were build for police use a few years back, though they're expensive as heck).
The usual application touted for this kind of multiple-chemical detector is medical diagnostics (measuring chemicals in the blood), but you could also use them as pollution guages, or in an improved breathalyzer, or as a pheromone sensor to let machines sense the moods of humans to a rough degree ("he's in a rotten mood; time to brew coffee").
It might or might not be possible to use the plastics mentioned in the article as wide-spectrum detectors. It would depend on how tailorable their responses are, and how selective the tailored responses can be made.
Reminds me of a project my chemistry professor was working on a couple years ago. He was designing a mine-detection system that could sense as little as one molecule of explosive. IIRC, it involved a receptor chemical that would respond to TNT and only to TNT, and when TNT bonded to it, the minute change in mass would be detected and amplified by some sort of sensor (the details of this part escape me). His main job was to design the receptor chemical. Detecting TNT by smell would also work I guess, but it would take quite a bit more TNT.
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This technology looks interesting, but I am curious if it will extend to odor-sensitive devices available for a wider range of scents. Imagine a security device that ensured that each person smelled right before allowing entry (similar to a dog, but not distracted by food).
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This technology looks interesting, but I am curious if it will extend to odor-sensitive devices available for a wider range of scents. Imagine a security device that ensured that each person smelled right before allowing entry (similar to a dog, but not distracted by food).
...And then you switch to a different brand of deodourant...
While smell is probably too variable to use as a security device, sensors like this certainly exist. There was a flurry of annoucements over the past year about "biochip" sensor array that could measure more or less arbitrary sets of chemicals in air or water. You could also go the old-fashioned route and install a gas chromatograph in the building's entrance annex (briefcase-sized combined mass spectrometer/gas chromatograph devices were build for police use a few years back, though they're expensive as heck).
The usual application touted for this kind of multiple-chemical detector is medical diagnostics (measuring chemicals in the blood), but you could also use them as pollution guages, or in an improved breathalyzer, or as a pheromone sensor to let machines sense the moods of humans to a rough degree ("he's in a rotten mood; time to brew coffee").
It might or might not be possible to use the plastics mentioned in the article as wide-spectrum detectors. It would depend on how tailorable their responses are, and how selective the tailored responses can be made.
Reminds me of a project my chemistry professor was working on a couple years ago. He was designing a mine-detection system that could sense as little as one molecule of explosive. IIRC, it involved a receptor chemical that would respond to TNT and only to TNT, and when TNT bonded to it, the minute change in mass would be detected and amplified by some sort of sensor (the details of this part escape me). His main job was to design the receptor chemical. Detecting TNT by smell would also work I guess, but it would take quite a bit more TNT.
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Check in...(OK!) Check out...(OK!)
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
This technology looks interesting, but I am curious if it will extend to odor-sensitive devices available for a wider range of scents. Imagine a security device that ensured that each person smelled right before allowing entry (similar to a dog, but not distracted by food).