Medical Gear

Although, electronic noses are used for last many years in the food and beverage industry to maintain quality control. But now, space agency NASA has also developed an electronic nose to sense pollutants inside space craft to avoid the build ups of potentially lethal concentrations. This artificial nose also functions similarly like human olfactory. The smelling power of this newly developed nose is not so sensitive but it is capable to detect far fewer smells. According to Dr James Covington of University of Warwick: Compared to the olfactory system, they neither mimic the complexity or the structure Generally smell includes number of molecules with specific size and shape but human nose encloses more than 100 million receptors which can be docked with these molecules. To separate different odor molecules to enable them to arrive at receptors end at different speeds and times a layer of mucus dissolves the inward aromas and to differentiate diverse range of smells our brain is also capable to interpret these patterns. If we compare artificial nose with human nose this robotic nose contains minute array of chemicals, those usually ranges between six and twelve and are capable to identify patterns of molecules if connected to a computer or neural networks. Where as neural network can be defined as a collection of computer processors that function in a similar way to a simple animal brain. However, artificial nose consist small amount of sensors and till now no mucus filters arriving molecules those are able to detect far fewer smells. But now, University of Warwick and Leicester has discovered a 10 micron (one thousandth of a centimeter) layer of a polymer inside the sensor that will radically enhance nose performance as Dr Covington said: We can separate milk from cream, for example The team also unveiled that this enhanced electronic nose will be ready to sell in next couple of years. Source