I’m really rather excited because I was just made aware of yet another milestone in the field of machine perception — the ability to smell. Actually, that’s not exactly what I meant to say — I’ve been smelling for years in my own quiet way — what I should have said was that machines now have the ability to detect, recognize, and respond to smells.
Today’s machines, such as robots, boast all sorts of capabilities that — until recently — would have been possible only in the realm of science fiction. They can see (with cameras), hear (with microphones), and they can even touch/feel (with tiny force sensors). Until now, however, their sense of smell has been rudimentary to say the least, primarily limited to the ability to detect and identify individual gasses of a noxious nature.
Hmm. While I think about it, what would be the equivalents to the term “machine vision” when it comes to sounds and smells? We could use “machine olfaction” for smells, but what would be the counterpart for auditory perception?
The reason for my meandering musings is that my chum Rick Curl just alerted me to the fact that, a few hours ago as I pen these words, the Smell Inspector Kickstarter launched. This little rascal is an electronic nose — should we say eNose, e-nose, or e-Nose? — presented in the form of a developer’s kit and an end-user gadget.

Brought to us by those clever guys and gals at SmartNanotubes Technologies, the Smell Inspector features an olfactory sensor array based on nifty nanomaterials that’s both cheaper and 100 times more sensitive than traditional gas sensors.
Furthermore, this sensor isn’t limited to individual gasses; rather, in conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI), it can be used for the digitization and recognition of smells formed from complex concoctions of aromatic molecules.
Compatible with the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, the Smell Inspector is extremely sensitive and uses very little power. Also, its small size means it can be integrated into many devices, including robot arms, autonomous automations, and even drones.
Even though this Kickstarter launched only a couple of hours ago, it’s already exceeded its original goal. In fact, the pledges continue to mount as I watch the screen. I can envisage so many uses for this, not the least being to detect, identify, and alert us to products that have passed their “best by” states in our home refrigerators. I will be interested to see how SmartNanotubes Technologies fares, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them being snapped up by a larger company in the not-so-distant future.
I was told (many years ago) that the way to detect rancid margarine during production was to employ human tasters, who would dip their finger (figuratively one would hope) and lick it. I guess if you threw up, the batch was bad…
I wonder how you calibrate that in a world of ISO?
I assume wine and beer production would work in he same way, although possibly more pleasurable.
Do you suppose there are electronic tasters now?
Just found this
https://techxplore.com/news/2020-05-digital-device-virtual-food.html
I can see a counterpoint to this in having “robot nannies” (caregiver for kids) that could smell and taste food before giving it to infants…
So many questions. If a robot can’t smell, does that mean it has Covid? Does this signal the end of search dogs? Will dog robots like to smell other dogs you-know-what. Will robot smoke alarms be able to distinguish between a real fire and a burnt toast? Will robots decide which humans need psychiatric help because they smell like they haven’t bathed in months? Asking for a friend.
You have a friend? How come this is the first I’ve heard of this?
Bit weird I know, but I can’t help wondering how it would react to my farts?
Couldn’t be worse than my wife… 😄
Actually — I was thinking of your wife — we could record her voice and then when the electronic nose detects one of your audible aromatic additions to the world, it could say “David!!!”
Finally! Now you have a way to build a safety for your Hutzler Banana Slicer: https://www.eeweb.com/what-really-thats-bananas/ I would hate for one of those to go off unexpectedly without having a banana properly installed.
You can never be too careful……