Computers are slowly gaining human senses. Cameras give them eyes, and microphones give them ears, however, one sense that hasn't yet been duplicated is a sense of smell.
A company called C2Sense, however, is aiming to change that, and has come up with a small chip that essentially gives computers a sense of smell, which can be used to smell whether or not food is going off.
While detecting spoiling food seems like it could be easy and not really that big of a deal, it's more important than what one might think. When a piece of fruit, for example, goes off, it releases a gas called ethylene. When fruits are exposed to this gas, they ripen much quicker, themselves releasing ethylene.
The new technology is able to detect trace amounts of ethylene that humans would otherwise be unable to smell, essentially allowing people to know that food is spoiling before it fully spoils. This could be a big deal for businesses like fruit vendors or supermarkets, enabling them to pinpoint exactly which piece of fruit is going off so it can be thrown out.
In the same way that cameras have become common in the home, it wouldn't be totally unthinkable to imagine that computer "noses" will end up the same way. In fact, most of us have rudimentary versions of computerized noses called smoke alarms, which are able to detect carbon monoxide. In fact, sensors that are able to detect ethylene have been around for a while, however, they have been either too expensive or unable to detect gases outside of a lab, where there are other gases present.
According to Jan Schnorr, the founder and CTO of C2Sense, the goal is to make the chips cheap enough to be built into product packaging or implemented into grocery bags without users having to pay too much extra at checkout. The chips could then alert users when food goes off. The chips could also be built into Internet-of-Things devices like smart refrigerators and so on.
Via: Wired
