EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: Alex Eisenhut on October 07, 2017, 04:48:46 pm
-
So I have a weird smell in my condo, it smells like paint. No one is painting so I'm thinking something in my vast clutter has leaked, but what?
We have two nostrils, but no stereo.... I know it's because it all goes to the same organ at the same time.
But if you had to design something that somehow measured a gradient of molecules in the air so you can triangulate the source, how would that work?
The few chemical "smell" (like CO for example) sensors I know about seem to rely on a specific property of that gas and that sensor, it won't detect anything else.
So if you don't even know what you're smelling, can there be a sensor to detect "not air"?
-
http://www.enose.nl/rd/technology/ (http://www.enose.nl/rd/technology/)
-
IF you're the first one developing for a artificial/electronic nose, I also would apply for the next Nobel prize
-
This is coincidental because I also smelled a really horrible unknown smell in the air outside earlier today.
-
IF you're the first one developing for a artificial/electronic nose, I also would apply for the next Nobel prize
Yeah, IMHO the hardest of the five senses that can be done electronically is the sense of smell.
Because...
The electronic version of our sight are ccd sensors.
Then, for sound we have microphones.
Next, for touch we have pressure plates or touch sensors.
And for taste, maybe do it with a pH sensor?..
For smell, there are gas sensors but they're specifically for gas, not like the aroma of coffee or whatever...
:) ;)
-
IF you're the first one developing for a artificial/electronic nose, I also would apply for the next Nobel prize
Yeah, IMHO the hardest of the five senses that can be done electronically is the sense of smell.
Because...
The electronic version of our sight are ccd sensors.
Then, for sound we have microphones.
Next, for touch we have pressure plates or touch sensors.
And for taste, maybe do it with a pH sensor?..
For smell, there are gas sensors but they're specifically for gas, not like the aroma of coffee or whatever...
:) ;)
For taste you could also go the optical route. At work we have one of these to recognize contaminants after cleaning:
http://www.agilent.com/en/products/ftir/ftir-compact-portable-systems/4300-handheld-ftir (http://www.agilent.com/en/products/ftir/ftir-compact-portable-systems/4300-handheld-ftir)
The sensitivity is incredible (price also, around 50K).
Haven’t compared it to my taste though, as I do not want to lick those surfaces to comare ::)
-
This is coincidental because I also smelled a really horrible unknown smell in the air outside earlier today.
Maybe time for the annual shower? ;)
-
My monophonic nose eventually led me to some decomposing Tektronix P6032 probes. The cables are sweating some 1960s hydrocarbons, and the General Radio brown strain relief is turning to gum.
Yay for hoarding test equipment!
I was planning on re-jacketing those with some flexible heat shrink...
-
Your nose is stereo, just not in the way you expect. Throughout the day they trade turns, one being restricted and slow flow, the other being open and high flow.
This allows you to smell a much wider variety of scents than if they all came at once.
As for catching the smell direction of what smells like paint. Does it smell like the paint solvent, like oil based paint. Water based paint. Etc, that might help narrow down what your trying to find.
The other thing you can try is when you retun home after a few hours away hold your breath and walk to a new spot. Some smells you can only really pick up on once. And breathing slowly through your nose generally lets you figure out the composition better.
The nose is almost like a gas chromatagraph