Will Feeding Olfactory Sense Data To Machines Help in Futuristic Forensic Sciences?
Shikha SaxenaAug 26 · 3 min read
Can machine become intelligent enough to sense a smell and differentiate
Humans use five senses to gather information: Sense of Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and Hearing and of course a sixth sense of intuition. Machines or robots gather information by their sensors. All this information is through Image, Olfaction, Contact, Taste description text and voice data respectively and of course Artificial Intelligence to predict! The question is will feeding Olfactory Sense Data to machines help in futuristic Forensic Sciences?
Every smell and odour has a particular pattern which electronic nose of robots can catch to detect smell of various biological and non-biological chemicals as Blood, excretory products and sweat and degrading skin smell and smell of acting microorganisms as Salmonella, Bacteria and hence alcoholic smell produced . This sense is being used to detect trapped human in natural disaster areas.
Electronic Nose or eNose
Electronic nose is an electronic device to sense smell. It is an emerging field of Biomedical Sciences/ Engineering to simulate sense of smell in robots through Machine Olfaction technology. It is an automation technology to detect and analyze air borne chemical smells by robots. The device used is called electronic nose or e-Nose.
Habituation
The “sense of smell” data to robots that is fed into machines create a new and exciting world of robots.
This smell or olfactory system is called as habituation which simulates brains olfactory system through AI in robots.
Such habituated and equipped robots can process massive amount of data to identify different chemicals. Such robots may be helpful in Pollution control in Environment Engineering, Chemical detections in Geological Sciences Biological and Forensic Sciences may also benefit from this major functions of robots in detecting and identifying smell patterns to unlock major puzzles.
Mechanism behind smell detection
As our brains process smell through inhaling smell laden air where smell molecules form complex with nose receptors and takes this information to our brain. Brain then analyze this smell , compares and identifies the person, thing or place of smell through tis information.
Similarly odor molecule’s smell pattern creates a similar relay of information through Robots electronic nose. This information is processed and analyzed through sifting of stored smell data and retrieval of closest results.
In addition to e-nose other sensors which help in creating smell data are as follows:
- Gyroscopes — device that spin/move on its axis in different directions.
2. Accelerometers — help to measure and detect air pressure, vibration, presence and speed of smell molecules.
3. Olfactometer is another instrument that measures smell /odor dilution.
Digital Olfaction and AI
Digital olfaction mimics the way human brain sense smell. Biosensors capture the odor signature and then use software solutions to detect, analyze, match and display odor data. Artificial Intelligence (AI) identify and classify these signatures against the previously stored smell data.
With the advent of digital scent technology it is now possible to sense transmit and receive smell data through internet.
Wait and watch this addition of digital technology to your smart phones in future!
Use of humanoid robots Olfactory adaptation in Forensic sciences
Forensic Sciences also make use of science of smell or odorology in detecting and identifying criminals or detection of explosive chemicals and drugs.
Human scents data can be used to differentiate individuals and also identify and link a particular individual to particular scene or place of incident. There is still so much to explore!
Imagine the amount of smooth operations in such forensic detections, when olfactory adaptation of robots will be used in solving such cases at public places as airports and other important institutions and buildings.
Smell or Olfaction is the mute sense, the one without words….
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WRITTEN BY
Shikha Saxena
A Technical Writer, an artist and blogger by choice. Passionate about reading , writing and editing. http://www.shikhasaxena.com and https://www.dnabox.co/
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