High-Tech Smell Sensors

Scientists and entrepreneurs are developing devices that can detect and analyse smells, similar to the way cameras can now recognise our faces. The research is challenging—odours are made up of many different chemicals, and olfactory receptors are remarkably diverse.

Some devices are purely robotic but others incorporate living cells. One, for instance, uses bioengineered nerve cells to recognise the smell of explosives.

Researchers see opportunities to tap the complex world of odours to detect diseases like cancer, or even to decipher moods and behaviours.

So what?

This might seem like science fiction but it's very much science fact. Dogs have been trained to sniff out prostate cancer in urine samples.

So in the future, if our mobile phones and devices can 'smell' medical conditions, it raises some challenging questions about privacy.

Could our body odours be used to collect data on our health, lifestyle choices, mood and habits? Could this data then impact insurance premiums, employments offers, or even dating? Could targeted product marketing suddenly include an olfactory element to reach people at the perfect purchase moment, for example, the optimum stage of their fertility cycles?