Now Cameras To Capture Smells

Do you know that our nose is a very advance and complicated smell detector. The nasal receptors are capable of discriminating billions, if not trillions, of smells, particularly ones that act as flavor

components for food or drink. There are about 400 receptor types in our nose capturing  ambient molecules bobbing about in the air. These molecules trigger a complex chain reaction ultimately transforming into a perception, a signal. The signal pinballs its way around our brains: a coffee, dark roast; Temple visit in early morning; Mom’s kitchen.

There is a big challenge world over to control bad smell at Airports, arenas, factories, people—they all stink, and they stink in particular ways. We know this because our noses tell us so. 

Attempts have been made to recreate our oldest sensory experience with machines and technology have been woefully lacking so far . Modern everyday devices might be smart enough to recognize our faces and voices, read our pulses, and track our motions, but not a smart device to feel the smell. The best example of a commercial device that can reliably pick up chemical signals in the air hasn’t changed in years. It’s called a smoke detector.

But Koniku inc , a start-up in US ,claims that  it’s landed upon a sensory breakthrough. In July this year, the company struck an agreement with the world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, to deploy the Konikore, as the purple bubble is called, to measure how a beverage’s aromatic notes are perceived and experienced by the nose, with the aim of enhancing flavor. And in coming weeks, the Konikore is expected to start showing up in some U.S. airport terminals, with the result of signing  a partnership with Airbus SE that’s geared toward bomb detection. Koniku has also signed another deal with electronic sensor manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. to create a method for detecting traces of marijuana on people suspected of driving under the influence. There will be devices based on the breakthrough installed at public toilets at Airports, railway/ bus stations, malls  and other public areas to have better control over the stink. 

 These smart devices have arrived to capture smell in the same way as the camera did for vision. These can be called as  smell camera on the smell sidewalk., The difference with Koniku’s “camera” is that the purple encasement contains tiny living nerve cells. They’re suspended inside a proprietary solution designed to replicate the mucosa, the layer of membrane high up in our nasal cavities. The cells contain specific transmem- brane proteins programmed to recognize odor molecules, precisely as those in our nose would catch a whiff. The reaction that convert that energy. Pretty straightforward, because these are energy particles by definition. Sound is a compression of air—an energetic particle. But smell is a different beast.

Compared with what we know about vision and hearing, our understanding of the olfactory process, whether the inha- lation of a molecule or the perception of an odor, remains in the Dark Ages.

The newest smell technology tries to mimic this by drawing on an array of disciplines, from neuroscience and organic chemistry to machine learning, data science—and, more recently, epidemiology. For obvious reasons, scent-based disease detection has gotten a fresh look over the past year. To some, the dream of a device that can blend into the background and monitor someone’s breath or sweat for illness has never been so closer to reality.

Although the most common use is for the food and drink industry, there are myriad existing and potential applications for e-nose technology, such as:

• Better odor control/ management at public toilets area
• Detection and identification of bacteria and infectious disease
• Alcohol sensor systems for use without active participation by the subject
• Detecting toxins or other hazardous elements such as CO, which is odorless to humans
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis in the petroleum industry
• Explosive detections
• Detection for environmental applications
• Quality control in the automotive industry
• Discriminating between clean and contamination in milking systems
• Cosmetic raw materials analysis
• Space applications
• Monitoring hazardous substances
• Chemical warfare detection
• Plant disease diagnosis

Interestingly, the technology so far developed  yet to outperform dogs used to sniff out drugs.