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Technology

Artificial Nose Works By Color 56

Posted by timothy from the no-wonder-I'm-a-different-color-after-a-shower! dept.
Alien54 writes: "As reported here in the Science Daily News, chemists Kenneth Suslick and Neal Rakow at the University of Illinois have developed an artificial nose that is simple, fast and inexpensive - and works by visualizing odors. Called "smell-seeing" by its inventors, the technique is based on color changes that occur in an array of vapor-sensitive dyes known as metalloporphyrins - doughnut-shaped molecules that bind metal atoms. Metalloporphyrins are closely related to hemoglobin (the red pigment in blood) and chlorophyll (the green pigment in plants) Smell-seeing arrays have many potential uses, such as in the food and beverage industry to detect the presence of flavorings, additives or spoilage; in the perfume industry to identify counterfeit products; at customs checkpoints to detect banned plant materials, fruits and vegetables; and in the chemical workplace to detect and monitor poisons or toxins. The full text is available as a PDF file (but is recommended for chemistry geeks only)."

Add that to the machines that analyze the "aura" of heated air that surrounds our bodies, and you can get a stinkometer the likes of which has been heretofore confined to the dark recesses of deodorant company imaginations. Till then, it looks like a cool approach to the problem of identifying smells electronically for all kinds of other purposes.
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Artificial Nose Works By Color More

Artificial Nose Works By Color

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  • Re:Worried... (Score:3)

    by kabir ( 35200 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @01:40AM (#838277)
    The area where I see where this having the most popularity is in spying^H^H^H^H^H^Hlaw enforcement. We already have police dogs that sniff out criminals; electronic smell recognition seems to be a (un)natural extension of this. Can't you imagine the FBI or NSA with a huge database of peoples' "smells" and matching them with gloves left behind at a crime or sperm samples from a rape? Of course, you wouldn't have to register your smell with them -- after all, you don't really need that driver's license!

    Actually, this is by no means a new idea. The East German Stasi had a program where smells were gathered through a variety of means and stored in sealed jars. The jars could be opened months, even years later and the scents (usually preserved on a piece of fabric) presented to bloodhounds and the like. Surprisingly enough, this actually worked pretty well.

    References to this practice can be found in a number of places, including reporter's notes [fas.org] (search for "smell samples") archived at the Federation of American Scientists [fas.org].

    So it's fairly clear that people and governments are not only capable of doing this sort of thing, but, in fact, it has been done (and will be done again if it's deemed valuable, I have no doubt). However, it must be pointed out that the usefulness of electronic bomb sniffers and smell based weapons locators is huge, and, properly applied, would likely save many lives.
    --

  • Well, it started with Star Trek. They invented all sorts of gubbins, and the scientists came up with the technology to make it happen (Well, some of it).

    It looks, though, like the scientists who invent these things are moving onto something else... Namely, Discworld. Smell-by-colour was being done by werewolves such as Constable Angua long ago (Admittedly in a different universe)

  • The possibilities for this invention in the field of law and order are huge, and we owe it to the hard-working police and security forces of the world to see it turned into an effective tool as quickly as possible.

    After all, sniffer dogs, as effective as they can be. can only be used to do so much, and they have to be trained to alert their handlers to different smells. This device can just be programmed with a huge array of chemical "pictures" and used continuously instead.

    In an age where FBI figures show an increase of about 12% each year in the amount of illegal high explosives seized, this kind of ultra-sensitive device is something we need.

  • Didn't Rob say in one GiS [thesync.com] that he couldn't smell.... or was that taste....?

    Well, it's going to make some people's lives better anyway.... which can never be a bad thing...

  • Exactly what color are farts? Does methane turn green in this thing's viewfinder(orwhatever)? Will it be some color for the methane and millions of specks of another color so that I'll have a jet of sparkly gas shoot outta my butt hours after I have a giant bowl of beans?

    I mean, come on! The scientific community want to know, right? Right?

    Rami
    --
  • ...because it can see the yellow hands.

    (at least here in Brazil this would be funny :) )

    --

  • Electronic nose ? (Score:4)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @02:26AM (#838283) Journal
    Till then, it looks like a cool approach to the problem of identifying smells electronically for all kinds of other purposes.
    I am not sure we might soon have some Stinkometer tomorrow as, if I understand that a device using this technology could detect some smell, and maybe recognize some that stink, there will still be issues about mixes, for example, if you take a flower perfume and some food smell, they could independantly smell good but their mix could smell awful (Roquefort cheese + flowers, for example).
    Except in few cases when mixing odorous gas will induce molecular changes (that could reasonably make a sensor react properly), these smells will consist of sets of smell clouds which could independantly be analyzed but may probably not (yet) be classified as a unique smell type.
    So, I accept the idea of an electronic nose though we may all agree that we need (1) enough sensors to detect all these subtilities (2) a brain in order to analyze the resulting smell by confronting all the sensor results simultaneously.
    I don't even mention cultural facts that'll make (for example) alcohol, smell better for non-Muslims than for Muslims and thus will require different classification schemes.
    A typical application of this study (IMHO) would be to detect gas (c3h8, c4h10) leaks in houses in order to avoid explosions. Cheers
    PS: BTW, it is funny not to have a single occurrence of the word smell in the PDF file...
    --
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Measuring odors = digital flavor? (Score:3)

    by Ichoran ( 106539 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @02:36AM (#838285)
    One of the reasons why foodstuffs have "secret formulas" is because it's not possible to get intellectual property protection for a recipe. Flavor is too vague. ("That tastes too much like Kentucky Fried!" "Does not!" "Does too!!!")

    A system somewhat like this is half of what is needed to make the recording of odor/flavor precise enough for legal action--the other half is an understanding of what goes on in our brains in response to a given set of chemicals.

    Note that if done properly, this will allow the digitization of odor. To play back an odor you'd spray a mixture of simple compounds that would have the same neurologic effect as the compounds being measured.

    (Technical note: metalloporphyrins can potentially be used to inexpensively identify a large number of compounds simultaneously; mass spec requires a very expensive machine to do this.)

  • I'd like to really know how exactly that was a troll? Maybe it wasn't all that funny, but certainly not a troll.

    Rami
    --
  • Aren't metalloporphyrins the symbiotic beings that Anakin Skywalker had so many of?

    Episode Two: Darth Vader hunts for Altoids

  • It just seems like something that sounds cool, but may not be all that practical in the real world.

    Boy, you sure are naive. Don't you realize they could replace bomb and drug sniffing dogs with these at airports and cause further delays?

    Oh, wait, maybe you're a passenger.

    Uh, nevermind. I deny everything!

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • What makes this better than mass-spec?

    In a word, it's cheap.

    Think of the potential of monitoring multiple sample points with a single optical detector/analyzer connected via optical fibers to hundreds (thousands?) of extremely cheap, easily-replaced sensors. If you tried to use mass-spec, you'd either have to have many spectrometers or a sampling system that brought the sample to a central analyzer. Photons are easier to move than molecules.

  • Even more useful, how about diapers?
    ___

  • Smell by color (Score:3)

    by Ketzer ( 207882 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @05:52AM (#838291)
    Okay, I suck at chemistry, so feel free to step in and correct me, but isn't "smell by color" a pretty obvious method? The fact is that "smell" isn't really a sense, in the way that seeing and hearing are senses. Your body actually takes in some particles, and your brain looks them up in and determines what they are, then feeds you a sensation based on the response. (I know I've probably over-computer-metaphored this, but the point I'm trying to make is that all of this is abstract and methaphoric, since senses are just electro-chemical responses in your brain, and the computer doesn't have a chemical brain)

    So the computer has to identify the chemical, then the process of recognizing it is the actual "smelling." The only two ways I can think of to identify a chemical are by physically contacting it with chemical receptors (this is the way noses do it, I believe, but this is far from practical with computers) or by looking at the molecules. Once you're looking at the molecules, the wavelength/frequency of light emitted (color) is the best way to recognize what molecules you're looking at.

    So smell by color isn't nearly as odd as it sounds.
  • It seems like a more generic reactive detector such as an Isocyanate Sniffer [afcintl.com] I wonder whether this is their eventual aim with the product, having some all in one unit that will be able to detect and report on different gasses in the air.
  • No, a few lives are not more important than freedom. However, the genie is out of the bottle as regards smell based identification (at least in a primitive way). My point is, technology is not inherently freedom-limiting, it's how the technology is applied. It is my sincere hope that this technology can exist, and be put to good use, whithout infringing on freedom.
    --
  • Well, I don't see why technology used by law enforcement is so bad. After all, you should identify to them if they ask you to anyway, not? And matching glove left on the crime site doesn't seem to me particullary bad. So they'll nail the bastard, isn't that good? Maybe the next bastard won't do it then...

    Also, do you want it or not, progress is not stoppable. If we say that when we battle RIAA over MP3 and MPAA over DVD, we should be ready to accept the consequences - that law enforcement would use this technologies too. Including voice recognition, smell matching, personal databases, etc. Nothing comes only with bright sides, technology included. What is right to do is not trying to get technology from the hands of law enforcement, but to get law enforcement more transparent and controlled by justice system (that's not easy to do while maintaining its effectiveness - but technology _is_ to help here).
  • Did they let Michael Jackson know?

    --------------
  • For once I can tell if the milk and other foodstuffs are spoiled in my refridgerator without actually having to smell or taste it myself!

    Many, many bio-experiments in molds, spores and fungii running

    I wonder if a computer can barf for me as well????

    Order^Chaos - What if that is not enough to decribe it all?

  • "producing an altered isotope of the metalloporphyrin"

    BZZT! Unless you've discovered something new in nuclear chemistry, don't try that on your PhD orals. Perhaps you meant allotrope?
  • The biggest use of this technology will be in creating portable halitosis detectors. Now THAT would improve society.

  • Re:ah (Score:1)

    by crovax ( 98121 )
    Merriam-Webster [m-w.com] told me that purple is a mollusk.
    -----
    If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.
  • My Chem 1 prof at Caltech has been working on an artificial nose for a while now, using different chemical reactions or something...and it's almost done (I think)...I heard he's a little bitter that he haven't gotten the Nobel price though...
  • ...the technique is based on color changes that occur in an array of vapor-sensitive dyes known as metalloporphyrins - doughnut-shaped molecules that bind metal atoms.

    Mmmmm... Doughnuts!
    --

  • I am so proud. (Score:3)

    by Shoeboy ( 16224 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @01:09AM (#838302) Homepage
    20 posts and not one fart joke. I'm ready to weep tears of joy. I knew that /. was slowly improving due to Taco's inspired moderation technology and now we have proof.
    Thank you Taco and thank you slashdotters. Let's work together to make /. fart-joke free and on-topic.
    Together we can make it happen.
    --Shoeboy
  • "My dog has no nose."
    "How does he smell?"
    "metalloporphyrins..."

    Nah...

  • I already have on of these. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It is called a beagle.

  • Secret messages! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I can't believe that the moderators fell for this troll, and moderated it up. Will the moderators ever learn that every anonymous post is either a troll or spam?

    The parent post is a blatant troll - the word "metalloporphyrin" is an anagram of "More happy trollin'", which is clear evidence that Mr. Ellendale is a troll. Futher evidence is found in the fact that "Precontelli's" is an anagram of "sincere troll". Mr. Ellendale is a very clever troll, who disguises his wicked trolling ways through the use of anagrams, but I have seen through his wicked plan.

    Thank you.

    (Sadly, with the average Slashbot intellect being as low as it is, I feel the need to point out that This post is a joke! I am sure that Chris Ellendale is a genuine person, and his post is genuinely informative (which is a rare thing for an AC post). However, the anagrams I mention are also genuine. Go on Moderatorbots, moderate me down as "overrated", you know you want to.)

  • Re:Synthetic Synaesthesia (Score:3)

    by Shoeboy ( 16224 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @01:14AM (#838306) Homepage
    scan, wipe, scan, compare
    I don't know what's wrong with this, it's what I do with my real nose. Not to mention my ass. Is there something wrong with modeling artifical organs off of real ones?
    --Shoeboy
  • speaking of which, i think it was some time last year that i heard the Univ. of Texas @ Austin came up with an artificial mouth that used some chemical sensors to "taste" food... it should be interesting to see if we can ever improve upon these enough, along with ai, to create our own androids, hehe
  • ...at customs checkpoints to detect banned plant materials...

    Hey, no fair. I like my banned plant materials! It's hard enough to get decent grass here as it is, i don't want Customs nicking even more smugglers. Damn them!
  • Another smelOscOpe was found in a parfume hq office, the competitors are smelling our secrets out.
  • Yes, the man, Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda, can't smell.

    Around 5min 20sec on Geeks in Space Ep29, Rob says he has no sence of smell.

    RealAudio [thesync.com]
    Mp3 Instant Play [thesync.com]
    Mp3 Download [199.34.53.69]

    Looks like CmdrTaco will find this stuff useful after all (maybe).

    It's one step closer to being Borg ;)

  • How long before a computer could then take the nose technology and replicate the scents?

    You could smell video games, the smoke, blood, environments...

    That would totally enrich any gaming experience.

    /d

  • Yes, my first thought was that the color nose should work particularly well on Fruit Loops [toucansam.com].
  • Remember the shirts that changed color with body heat? People would walk around with big bright pink armpits - not quite the same as detecting stink, but it had the same effect. Besides, after you washed them a few times they got stuck. ;-)

    The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
  • Or how about t-shirts that change colour according to body odour??? (I'm English, so I spell English words with English spellings). They could turn green if you've got BO, red if you've just farted etc.

    HH
  • Smell-seeing arrays have many potential uses, such as in the food and beverage industry to detect the presence of flavorings, additives or spoilage; in the perfume industry to identify counterfeit products; at customs checkpoints to detect banned plant materials, fruits and vegetables; and in the chemical workplace to detect and monitor poisons or toxins.

    ...and at the Gore 2000 headquarters to smell the bullshit?

  • However, it must be pointed out that the usefulness of electronic bomb sniffers and smell based weapons locators is huge, and, properly applied, would likely save many lives.

    Think about the children!!

    -thomas
  • I have to admit -- the idea of "seeing" smells by color is a pretty clever solution to the age-old problem of how to get electronics to recognize smells. Unfortunately, I can't see too many uses for this that aren't rather dangerous.

    Really? You must have no vision whatsoever.

    All joking aside, there are millions of uses for electronic "noses." Not least of which would be to be able to transmit smells over the internet (using http://www.digitalscents.com/ technology, perhaps?).

    Fart-jokes aside, this has powerful implications.

    It's amazing how quickly technology is eradicating whatever notions of privacy that people still had.

    How does this violate your privacy? No, I think you are confusing smell technology with CROOKED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.

    -thomas

  • After reading the pdf, and the news snippet, they seem to gloss over some relevent points. So you can get a color display of an oder. Last time I checked, there were over 430 compounds identified to cause an apple to smell like an apple. This was done with GC/MS. Why GC/MS? Because MS gives you a finger print of a molecule, by way of breaking it with a high energy source. Molecules break in a fashion that is unique to the individual molecule. By working backwards, knowing chemistry, and being very patient, you can rebuild the molecule. The only other techniques used to positivly ID molecules are really, NMR, and X-ray crystallography. But those techniques require a lot more sample. Next, the GC is one of the best seperating machines available, if run properly. But, still, 430 and counting for an apple. Sort of becomes apparent why those green candies taste more green than apple...

    Now, the next question is does the array distingush between compounds with similar smells, for instance ammonia (NH3) and trimethyl amine ((CH3)3N) Both smell like ammonia, but there is an obvious difference in chemical formula and structure. Maybe that is nit picky, but think of this another way. Should the DEA arrest you for smuggling pot or for wearing hemp derived shirt. Other fun examples could be getting busted for amphetamines, or just owning some nutmeg (trust me, they have some very similar compounds) So, now it seems that accuracy is important.

    But, think of the good points that this could have. The one that comes to mind is hazardous waste. Remember the movie "The Rock" and VX gas? The stuff really does exist, but you don't melt if exposed. We got it from the UK in the 50's for some nuc secrets. You muscles convulse, your back generally breaks. The problem with the stuff is it has a high vapor pressure (goes into gas phase easily) is sticky, and is toxic until the phosphonthiol bond it oxidized (broken) Also, there are a bunch of variations to the chemical structure, some more toxic that others, but who cares? If the array turns the wrong color, then break out the Haz-Mat suits and spray with bleach, pronto.

    Finally, the PDF file doesn't really address the array nose. It is really a reveiw of that field. A neat way to check for NO (Nitric Oxide) Just in case you were wondering, it is a chemical messenger in your body. Short lived, used in processes like smooth muscle contraction. There is an enzyme or two that break it down. Funny thing it that Viagra is an inhibitor of one of those enzymes. But, back to the point, the metalloporphines (like heme and chlorophyll) can be use for cellular sized monitors of certain molecules (only one at a time)
  • http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/suslick/pdf/nature00710.pd f

  • I believe that similar testing has been done before in the area of taste differences between operating systems.

    From the FreeBSD FAQ:

    Q. Has anyone done any temperature testing while running FreeBSD? I know Linux runs cooler than dos, but have never seen a mention of FreeBSD. It seems to run really hot.

    A. No, but we have done numerous taste tests on blindfolded volunteers who have also had 250 micrograms of LSD-25 administered beforehand. 35% of the volunteers said that FreeBSD tasted sort of orange, whereas Linux tasted like purple haze. Neither group mentioned any particular variances in temperature that I can remember. We eventually had to throw the results of this survey out entirely anyway when we found that too many volunteers were wandering out of the room during the tests, thus skewing the results. I think most of the volunteers are at Apple now, working on their new ``scratch and sniff'' GUI. It's a funny old business we're in!

  • > scan, wipe, scan, compare... I open the article, and this is the first thing I read. What do *you* think was the first thing to pop in to my mind? "It smells kinda of like corn, but... Oh, no... *blue screen* "
  • This technology has been around for at least a season on the Fox show Futurama.
  • Ever read the classic sci-fi story, "The Man With English" by H.L.Gold? About a guy who got in an accident that caused his senses to be reversed (hot/cold, sweet/sour, etc.) When they tried to operate to revert his nerves to normal, he woke up and said, "What smells purple?"

  • ah (Score:2)

    by nomadic ( 141991 )
    Well, those awful neon-colored kid's cereals DID claim that "purple" was a flavor...
    --
  • just don't eat the yellow snow
  • Soon there will be no excuse for having bad breath and/or body odour. How long until someone builds a consumer device for checking if you stink? Perfect if you're about to go out on a date with that new (girl/boy)friend of yours.

    If they can make them cheap enough then I'm sure everyone will have them after a couple of years.

  • Synthetic Synaesthesia (Score:4)

    by stx23 ( 14942 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @12:57AM (#838327) Homepage Journal
    To create an array, the researchers paint a series of tiny dots - each dot is a different dye - on an inert backing such as paper, plastic or glass. The array is then scanned with an ordinary flatbed scanner or an inexpensive electronic camera before and after exposure to an odor-producing substance. "By subtracting the 'before' image from the 'after' image, we obtain the color-change pattern of the odorant," Suslick said. "By comparing that pattern to a library of color fingerprints, we can quickly identify and quantify the chemical compounds present."
    scan, wipe, scan, compare.(hoping that the pantone references have not drifted) That just seems to take too long to get a result compared to a mass spectrometry approach. What make it better than this [smartnose.com]?
    It just seems like something that sounds cool, but may not be all that practical in the real world.
  • but according to Homer J Simpson, purple is a food group.
  • ...it suddenly turns red??

  • Worried... (Score:3)

    by vertical-limit ( 207715 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @12:59AM (#838330)
    I have to admit -- the idea of "seeing" smells by color is a pretty clever solution to the age-old problem of how to get electronics to recognize smells. Unfortunately, I can't see too many uses for this that aren't rather dangerous. I certainly wouldn't bother setting up my computer to smell things -- it would be about as most useful as voice-recognition software; a novelty feature at best.

    The area where I see where this having the most popularity is in spying^H^H^H^H^H^Hlaw enforcement. We already have police dogs that sniff out criminals; electronic smell recognition seems to be a (un)natural extension of this. Can't you imagine the FBI or NSA with a huge database of peoples' "smells" and matching them with gloves left behind at a crime or sperm samples from a rape? Of course, you wouldn't have to register your smell with them -- after all, you don't really need that driver's license!

    It's amazing how quickly technology is eradicating whatever notions of privacy that people still had. We already have our appearance, blood type, and actions recorded and disseminated all around the world; now we're going to have our smells tracked too? What's next, our skin texture?

  • It's amazing how quickly technology is eradicating whatever notions of privacy that people still had. We already have our appearance, blood type, and actions recorded and disseminated all around the world; now we're going to have our smells tracked too? What's next, our skin texture?

    Retina and iris scans [eeye.com], voice print identification [aftiinc.com], DNA patterns [mit.edu], credit card numbers, social security numbers.. It can't get much worse than it already is. Just sit back and enjoy the ride, or do your duty as a responsible citizen [akpress.org].
    --

  • Metalloporphyrins (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @01:30AM (#838332)
    Sorry I don't have a login, so I'll just post this with my name at the end.

    This is just one example of a new field in biochemistry called "porphyrins". I've been working on them for my doctorate thesis for the last three years, but I never expected to see them mentioned on Slashdot.
    The way metalloporphyrins (and the larger group of porphyrins) work is that when a particular molecule hits a pre-prepared surface coated with the dye, the metalloporphyrin alters its structure through movement in the electron shells to mimic the molecules form, producing an altered isotope of the metalloporphyrin that has different optical properties, reflecting only a select sequence of wavelengths. This is caused by the electron shells collecting energy from the photons as they arrive, and re-emitting them in accordance with Precontelli's principle of refraction.
    Porphyrins have much in common with the family of chromopolymers, as well (at least in their macroscopic physical interactions. It's a very interesting field of research, and I hope that some future chemists might become involved.

    -- Chris Ellendale
    Ph.D candidate, University of California

    For more information, see the following links:
    Porphyrin Co., Ltd. [porphyrin.com]
    Summary of Porphyrins and Metalloporphyrins [uiuc.edu]
    Metalloporphyri ns [porphyrin.net]
    Photosensisizing effects of metalloporphyrins [photobiology.com]

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