ABSTRACT
The remarkable capabilities of biological chemosensory systems in detecting, recognizing, and discriminating complex mixtures of chemicals, together with rapid advances in understanding how these systems operate, has stimulated the imagination and interest of many researchers and commercial organizations. Such stimulation has led to the development of electronic analogues. An artificial sensing system that emulates the human sense of smell is of upmost need in a number of fields, including the food, flavor, beverage, and cosmetic industries, as well as environmental protection industries and governmental agencies. Although the human sense of smell has been used for centuries in applied industrial settings in quality control and other processes, it is liable to variation from illness and other factors, including subject age, gender, and training. Moreover, there are linguistic limitations in communicating odor experiences among individuals. While, as noted in other chapters of this volume, the human sense of smell is exquisitively sensitive and can provide reliable estimates of odorant intensity and quality, there can be considerable variability of response among untrained individuals to different odors and odor concentrations. An instrument that could perform simple odor discrimination and provide an accurate indication of odor intensity with less variation than that observed in human responses would be very useful in modern industry.
