Identifying People By Odor As Effective As Fingerprinting

A study has found that everybody has a unique body odor, like their fingerprints, that could be used as an unique identifier. The study showed that a persons unique odor stayed the same even if they varied their diet with strong smelling foods such as garlic and spices. "These findings indicate that biologically-based odorprints, like fingerprints, could be a reliable way to identify individuals," said Monell chemist Jae Kwak. I would have thought that hundreds of years of dogs tracking people would have proved this, but it's nice to know that science has figured it out officially now.

Comments

finger prints arent that unique!

[TheSovereign]

the idea that fingerprints are unique is stupid, especially for anyone who is actually in law enforcement or forensics. you need 12 count it TWELVE different points of matching to even get a fingerprint submitted for evidence. so if this odor is just as effective that means its pretty much a scare tactic as much as "we got your fingerprints at the scene!" is

Re:finger prints arent that unique!

[Detritus]

I sat through a trial in which the defense lawyer undertook a long cross-examination of the prosecution's finger print expert. I wasn't too impressed with the expert, who said that there were no standards for declaring a match. Her qualifications for the job was that she had been doing it for many years. She might be really good at her job, but the whole business struck me as slip-shod and lacking rigor.

What about vodka?

[ShaunC]

I drink a lot (a fifth of vodka every two days, on average). One of my coworkers, out of 12+, claims she can smell the hell out of it on me. I shower each morning and two different Axe products are part of my showering repertoire. While I don't doubt that I sweat out some portion of the previous night's alcohol during the course of the work day, I'm curious where the threshold is.

I put back about 375ml of vodka per night - mixed with various other beverages, typically Diet Mt. Dew, a random Gatorade, or one of Ocean Spray's delicious juices. Some nights I have no vodka, but drink 6 to 12 beers instead, depending upon the brand. And from time to time, such as last night, I'll get to sleep simply by virtue of 100mg Diphenhydramine HCl without having a drop of alcohol. This coworker swears she can still smell it, even after I've gone 48 hours and 2 or more showers since my last drink.

I suspect that certain people have unusually strong senses of smell. We know that dogs do. I hope that I don't have any offensive BO at work, and I'd doubly hope that if I did, someone would tell me about it. That only a single coworker has mentioned her ability to "smell the booze on me" makes me paranoid, but it also makes me wonder. Is she hypersensitive, or are all of my other coworkers picking up on it and just being too polite to say anything? Knowing most of my coworkers very fondly, I suspect the former.

Dogs have never liked me - or conversely, they've always liked me too much. To me, canines exhibit excessive hyperactivity. That's why I have a cat instead. She might be the boss of my house, but the only time she freaks out is when I drop some fresh catnip somewhere nearby.

Re:What about vodka?

[digitalchinky]

Having never had a sense of smell myself, at all, and not knowing that body odour actually even existed until I hit about 20 years of age, I'm going to have to put this down to the latter. People are far more likely to say nothing than to speak up. This includes family, close friends, acquaintances, and total strangers.

Sometimes I forget to slap on deodorant so I'll quite literally ask anyone close by if I smell bad. Trust me, nobody wants to answer that question, let alone have someone ask it. It's a loaded question in social terms. Even after letting them know my olfactory system is completely dead in the water they still stall and look confused. People simply have a hard time believing life could exist without smell, you lose your arm and it's obvious to the world, you lose your sight and this is pretty clear to nearby observers that this is the case, but smell. It's invisible.

On the dog side, I don't like them either, seems they all like me though, maybe it's body language they are picking up on.

Re:Oh...

[Skrapion]

They've also been using the section for "oddball" stories, of which this clearly fits.

In fact, with the exception of a few YouTube videos that showed up early in the life of Idle, most of the stuff posted in Idle that's made it to the front page is stuff that would have been posted on Slashdot anyway, but under a different category.

Re:Obviously...

[wclacy]

Do identical twins put off the same odor?

Stasi "police" of the Soviets

[Decomas]

In Berlin, Germany during the cold war era, the Stasi (Big Brother Police) knew this! They could track individuals with smell. In fact they have a room FILLED with little jars of every citizens' personal smell! I've been there and seen the rooms. They had special dogs trained for this too. They would open the jar and let the dog smell some... then go out into the city and find this person, they had a good success rate too which is kind of surprising. They would even track people by spraying different pheromones on their target.

Re:What porn site did that picture come from?

[macraig]

Armpit odor isn't actually generated by the human body itself: it's caused by bacteria feeding on "exudates". That's also true of bad breath. One of the most effective deodorants you can find is a triple antibiotic.

If that's true of the entire body in general, then simply eliminating - or substituting - the bacteria and other freeloaders might very well change this odor signature.