Contents:

Contents Introduction History Working principle Design model Comparison of biological

nose & enose Applications Advantage of enose over human nose Conclusion Reference

Introduction :

Introduction An electronic nose (e-nose) is a device that identifies the specific components of
an odor and analyzes its chemical makeup to identify it. An electronic nose consists of a
mechanism for chemical detection, such as an array of electronic sensors, and a mechanism
for pattern recognition. Electronic noses were originally used for quality control applications
in the food, beverage and cosmetics industries. Current applications include detection of
odors specific to diseases for medical diagnosis, and detection of pollutants and gas leaks for
environmental protection.

History :

History E -nose was frst suggested by Julian Gardner of Warwick University in1988
(Gardner, 1988) and came into popular use after a 1989 NATO conference on the subject.
Sincethen, development of sensor arraybased instruments has been actively pursued in Asia,
North America,and Europe. Using instruments based on sensor arrays, the low selectivity of
many types of chemical sen-sors can sometimes be resolved, though at the cost of using an
array of reversible but only semiselectivedetection layers with diferent chemical properties.
An e-nose has been defned as an instrument which comprises an array of electronic
chemical sensors with partial specifcity and an appropriate pattern rec-ognition system,
capable of recognizing simple or complex odours (Gardner and Bartlett 1994).

Working principle :

Working principle The electronic nose was developed in order to mimic human olfaction that
functions as a non-separative mechanism: i.e. an odor / flavor is perceived as a global
fingerprint. Essentially the instrument consists of head space sampling, sensor array, and
pattern recognition modules, to generate signal pattern that are used for characterizing odors.
Electronic noses include three major parts: a sample delivery system, a detection system, a
computing system. The sample delivery system enables the generation of the headspace
(volatile compounds) of a sample, which is the fraction analyzed. The system then injects this
headspace into the detection system of the electronic nose. The sample delivery system is
essential to guarantee constant operating conditions. The detection system, which consists of
a sensor set, is the reactive part of the instrument. When in contact with volatile
compounds, the sensors react, which means they experience a change of electrical properties.
Each sensor is sensitive to all volatile molecules but each in their specific way. Most
electronic noses use sensor arrays that react to volatile compounds on contact: the adsorption
of volatile compounds on the sensor surface causes a physical change of the sensor. A
specific response is recorded by the electronic interface transforming the signal into a digital
value. Recorded data are then computed based on statistical models . [5]

Design model :

Design model

Comparison of biological nose & enose :

Comparison of biological nose & enose

Comparison of Enose with Biological nose :

Comparison of Enose with B iological nose Biological nose Enose 10 million receptors, self
generated 5-100 chemical sensors manually replaced 10-100 selectivity classes 5~100
selectivity patterns Initial reduction of number of signals smart sensor arrays can mimic
(~1000 to1) this? Adaptive Perhaps possible Saturates Persistent Signal treatment in real tim
Pattern recognition hardware may do this Identifies a large number of odour Has to be trained
for each Cannot detect some simple molecules Can detect also simple molecules (H2, H20,
C02 )

Applications:

Applications Electronic nose for enviromental monitoring Enormous amounts of hazardous

waste (nuclear, chemical, and mixed wastes) weregenerated by more than 40 years of
weapons production in the U.S. Department of Energiesweapons complex. The Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory is exploring the technologiesrequired to perform
environmental restoration and waste management in a cost effective manner.This effort
includes the development of portable, inexpensive systems capable of real- timeidentification
of contaminants in the field. Electronic noses fit this category .. Electronic nose used in
detection of bombs The tragic bombings in London on the 7 July 2005 have caused many to
call for bagsearching at the ticket barriers on the Underground. This would cause huge
delays, apart fromfinding the manpower to do it. A possible alternative is using an electronic
nose to sniff out possible explosives so that only selected bags need to be searched by staff.
The concept has beenaround for a long time, and was initially ridiculed. The basic idea is a
device that identifies thespecific components of an odour and analyzes its chemical makeup
to identify it. One mechanism would be an array of electronic sensors would sniff out the
odours while a secondmechanism would see if it could recognize the pattern.

PowerPoint Presentation:

Electronic nose for multimedia Aaplication Multimedia systems are widely used in consumer
electronics environments today, wherehumans can work and communicate through multi-
sensory interfaces. Unfortunately smelldetection and generation systems are not part of
today's multimedia systems. Hence we can useelectronic nose in multimedia environment.
Electronic nose for medicine Because the sense of smell is an important sense to the
physician, an electronic nose hasapplicability as a diagnostic tool. An electronic nose can
examine odors from the body (e.g., breath, wounds, body fluids, etc.) and identify possible
problems. Odors in the breath can beindicative of gastrointestinal problems, sinus problems,
infections, diabetes, and liver problems.Infected wounds and tissues emit distinctive odors
that can be detected by an electronic nose.Odors coming from body fluids can indicate liver
and bladder problems. A more futuristicapplication of electronic noses has been recently
proposed for telesurgery.

Advantage of enose over human nose :

Advantage of enose over human nose The human sniffers are costly when compared to
electronic nose. It is because these people have to be trained. This is a time consuming that a
construction of an electronic nose. Now for the confirmation of the values obtained from a
sniffer the result obtained from the sniffer has to be compared with some other sniffers
value. And here there are great chances of difference in the values got by each individual.
Detection of hazardous or poisonous gas is not possible with a human sniffer. Thus taking
into consideration all these cases we can say that electronic nose is highly efficient than
human sniffer

Conclusion :

Conclusion Humans are not well suited for repetitive or boring tasks that are better left to
machines. No wonder the electronic nose is sometimes referred to as a "sniffer". The E-nose
has theinteresting ability to address analytical problems that have been refractory to
traditional analytical approaches. gospel is a European network of excellence in Artificial
Olfaction.In my view the electronic nose is a very useful instrument now a days.

Reference :

Reference WWW

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ELECTRONIC NOSE

There have been many developments in electronics to create real life

environments with respect to sight and sound. But there are three other significant senses-
smells, touch and taste which have not been experimented much with. The sensor technology
of artificial olfaction had its beginnings with the invention of the first gas multi sensor array
in 1982. Advances in aroma-sensor technology, electronics, biochemistry and artificial
intelligence made it possible to develop devices capable of measuring and characterizing
volatile aromas released from a multitude of sources for numerous applications. These
devices, known as electronic noses, were engineered to mimic the mammalian olfactory
system within an instrument designed to obtain repeatable measurements, allowing
identifications and classifications of aroma mixtures while eliminating operator fatigue [1].

A few smell-sensing instruments had been proposed in narrow applications earlier in the
1960s. Moncrief developed one of the first smell detection instruments in 1961 for
agricultural application, where he used a single coated thermistor as the smell sensor. In
1964, Wilkens and Hartmen developed a smell detector where an array of smell detectors
was used [8].It was in late 1980s that the first intelligent electronic smelling system came
into being. Researchers in the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, developed sensor
arrays for odour detection [5]. Pattern recognition techniques were used by Gardner to
discriminate the output of electronic smell sensors. Hartfield described an integrated circuit
based device that performs data acquisition from a miniature array of 32 conducting polymer
gas sensors. David and Gardner designed a circuit capable of measuring signals from arrays
of resistive and piezoelectric sensor types in the same board [8].
Electronic noses were originally used for quality control applications in the food, beverage
and cosmetics industries. Current applications include detection of hazardous chemicals and
explosives, detection of odours specific to diseases for medical diagnosis, and detection of
pollutants and gas leaks for environmental protection. The Warwick pioneers envisioned an
electronic equivalent of the mammalian olfactory system and so even though it doesnt
resemble its biological counterpart the least bit, the label electronic nose or E nose has
been widely adopted. [5].

2. THE ELECTRONIC NOSE AND THE BIOLOGICAL NOSE

2.1. Biological Olfaction

The mammalian nose is a complex sensory system that can sense and distinguish up to
10,000 different substances on the basis of odour even when there are only minor
differences in the chemical composition (e.g., Batches of perfumes, brands of coffee)[9].
Current understanding of this system is based on a neural approach which has the capacity
to identify a large number of odours within a context of background odours and varying
environment conditions. It is made up of three prominent parts: the olfactory mucosa with
its own related odour presentation system, the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex.

Odours are transferred through various nasal passages and once in the central one, odour
molecules link with the chemically sensitive olfactory receptor cells of the epithelium.
Olfactory cells are specialized neurons that are replicated approximately every 30 days[5].
The sensory cells in the epithelium respond by transmitting signals along neural "wires"
called axons. Signals from neurons with the same receptors converge on structures called
glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. The signals evoke unique pattern of activity (signature) in
these glomeruli within the olfactory bulb. The glomeruli form the first tier of information
processing. There then occurs a complex process of pattern recognition by the neural
network in the brain that learns to recognize various odour signatures through training [9].

It is known that a typical biological nose contains several millions receptors of approximately
1000 different types. These receptors together can detect up to 5,000 different smells with
98% accuracy [8]. Human smell detection is based on a combinational scheme where a
different number and type of smell receptors are activated in the presence of different
receptors. As a result, small changes in the chemical structure of a gas will activate a
different combination of receptors. That is why octanol smells like oranges, while a similar
compound, octanoic acid, smells like sweat. It has also been found that large amount of a
chemical affect larger number of receptors, which may change the smell perceived from this
chemical. In other words, a small amount of chemical might smell flowery while a large
amount of the same chemical might smell putrid [8].

2.2. The Electronic Nose

2.2.1. Overview
The electronic nose is a system that consists of three functional components that operate
serially on an odorant sample-a sample handler, an array of gas sensors and a signal
processing system. The output of the electronic nose can be the identity of the odorant, an
estimate of the concentration of the odorant, or the characteristics properties of the odour as
might be perceived by a human. [5].

ENS can be seen as arrays of-non specific sensors able to generate electrical signals in
response to either simple or complex volatile compounds, and give through a suitable multi
component analysis technique, the possibility of discrimination, recognition and
classification of odours. The target compound, in gaseous form, is introduced into the
sensing chamber where the sensors are exposed to the vapour. A variety of basic sensors can
be used according to the nose strategy chosen. Some of them are sensitive to the mass of
adsorbed species, others show sensitivities to electric charges while others are based on
either surface or bulk conductivity changes due to chemically interactive materials [9]. These
changes are dependent on a complex interaction between the components of the vapour and
the sensors, as each sensor responds to a number of components in a unique manner. Each
sensor in the array has different characteristics (e.g., coatings, operating temperatures, etc.)
and, hence, each sensor will give a different electrical response (voltage output) for a
particular odour [9]. The pattern of response across all the sensors in the array is used to
identify and/or characterise the odour.

In electronic noses pattern recognition methods are required for the qualitative analysis of
odours or of different compounds present in a certain mixture and multi component analysis
methods are required for the quantitative determination of one or more compounds in a
mixture. Commercially available analysis techniques fall into three main categories as
follows [1]:

1. Graphical analyses: bar chart, profile, polar and offset polar plots

2. Multivariate data analyses (MDA): principal component analysis (PCA)

3. Network analyses: artificial neural network (ANN) and radial basis function (RBF)
Experimental data are evaluated by a qualitative or quantitative link between output signals
of an instrument and the chemical information (composition or concentration of analytes).
This requires a comparison of the sensor outputs with previously recorded calibration data.
When high concentrations of volatile are measured, a non-linear pattern recognition
technique, such as ANN (Artificial Neural Networks), would be more appropriate [7]. On a
very simplified and abstract level, ANN is based on the cognitive process of the human brain.
ANNs are a commonly used pattern recognition technique which attempt to mimic the
biological processes of the human brain.

2.2.2. Comparison of electronic nose with biological nose

Each and every part of the electronic nose is similar to human nose. The function of inhaling
is done by the pump which leads the gas to the sensors. The gas inhaled by the pump is
filtered which in the human is the mucus membrane. Next comes the sensing of the filtered
gas, which will be done by the sensors i.e., olfactory epithelium in human nose. Now in
electronic nose the chemical retain occurs which in human body is enzymal reaction. After
this the cell membrane gets depolarised which is similar to the electric signals in the
electronic nose. This gets transferred as nerve impulse through neurons i.e., neural network
which is analogous to the electronic circuitries in the electronic nose [9].

2.2.3. The need of electronic nose

Why do we have to electronify the nose? The human sniffers are costly when compared to
electronic nose. It is because these people have to be trained. This is more time consuming
than the construction of an electronic nose. Also the speedy, reliable new technology of the
gas sensors in the electronic nose helps in the continuous real time monitoring of odour at
specific sites in the field over hours, days, weeks or even months. An electronic nose also
overcomes other problems associated with the human olfactory system. For the
confirmation of the values obtained from a sniffer the result obtained from the sniffer has to
be compared with some other sniffers value. And here there are great chances of difference
in the values got by each individual. Detection of hazardous or poisonous gas is not possible
with a human sniffer. Thus taking into consideration all these cases of individual variability,
adaptation (becoming less sensitive after prolonged periods of exposure), fatigue, infections,
mental state and subjectivity we can say that electronic nose is highly efficient than human
sniffer.

3. SENSOR TECHNOLOGY IN THE ELECTRONIC NOSE

3.1. Introduction

In a typical electronic nose, an air sample is pulled by a vacuum pump through a tube into a
small chamber consisting of electronic sensor array. The sensors are exposed to the odorant,
producing a transient response as the Volatile organic compounds interact with the surface
and bulk of the sensors active material. A steady state response is reached within few
minutes, depending on the sensor type. This response is then sent to a signal processing
unit. A washing gas such as an alcohol vapour is applied to the array for a few seconds to a
minute, so as to remove the odorant mixture from the surface and bulk of the sensor's active
material. Finally, the reference gas is again applied to the array, to prepare it for a new
measurement cycle. The period during which the odorant is applied is called the response
time of the sensor array. The period during which the washing and reference gases are
applied is termed the recovery time [5].

The ideal sensors to be integrated in an electronic nose should fulfil the following criteria:
high sensitivity towards chemical compounds, that is, similar to that of the human nose
(down to 1012 g/mL); low sensitivity towards humidity and temperature; medium
selectivity, they must respond to different compounds present in the headspace of the
sample; high stability; high reproducibility and reliability; short reaction and recovery time;
robust and durable; easy calibration; easily processable data output; small dimensions[7]. As
the sensors are designed for industrial purposes, especially as on-line systems, a minimal
working temperature with low power consumption, a high safety level, and low
manufacturing costs present valuable advantages. Most manufacturers are looking for highly
selective sensors. In the case of an electronic nose, every compound present in the gaseous
phase should be detected by at least one sensor. If a new compound is added to a mixture, at
least one sensor must detect this addition.

The sensor array is clearly the key element. The sensor array in an electronic nose performs
very similar functions to the olfactory nerves in the human olfactory system. Thus, the sensor
array may be considered the heart and most important component of the electronic nose. It
forms the primary step in the detection or identification of an odorant. Electronic nose
sensors fall into five categories: conductivity sensors, piezoelectric sensors, MOSFETs,
optical sensors, and spectrometry-based sensing methods [5].

3.2. Conductivity Sensors

There are two types of conductivity sensors: metal oxide and polymer both of which exhibit a
change in resistance when exposed to volatile organic compounds.

3.2.1. Metal oxide sensors

The most widely used class of gas sensors are the metal-oxide gas sensors. They were first
used commercially in the 1960s as household gas alarms in Japan. More recent uses include
applications in many different industrial processes. Basically, a metal-oxide sensor consists
of a ceramic support tube containing a heater spiral, usually composed of platinum. The
most widely used coating material is tin-dioxide (SnO2), doped with small amounts of
catalytic metal additives such as platinum or palladium. The sorption of gas molecules
provoke changes in conductivity brought about by combustion reactions with oxygen species
on the surface of the tin-dioxide particles [1]. These sensors by necessity operate at high
temperatures ranging from about 300 C to 550 C. At lower temperatures, the rate of the
reactions on the oxide surface is too slow. At temperatures below 100 C, the low vapour
pressure of water molecules inhibits oxidative chemical reactions.

The consequence of this high operating temperature is very high power consumption. Metal-
oxide sensors have very high sensitivity (sub-ppm levels for some gases) and respond to
oxidizing compounds (zinc-oxide, tin-dioxide, titanium-dioxide, iron oxide) and some
reducing compounds, mainly nickel-oxide or cobalt-oxide. From a chemical point of view,
the sensing reaction is based on an oxygen exchange between the volatile gas molecules and
the metal coating material. Electrons are attracted to the loaded oxygen and result in
decreases in sensor conductivity [3].

The baseline response of metal oxide sensors is prone to drift over periods of hours to days,
so signal-processing algorithms should be employed to counteract this property. The sensors
are also susceptible to poisoning (irreversible binding) by sulphur compounds present in the
odorant mixture. But their wide availability and relatively low cost make them the most
widely used gas sensors today.
3.2.2. Conducting polymers

Conducting polymer sensors, a second type of conductivity sensor, are also commonly used
in electronic nose systems. Conducting or conductive polymer gas sensors operate based on
changes in electrical resistance caused by adsorption of gases onto the sensor surface.
Conductive electro active polymers have attracted much interest for use as electronic noses
since the early 1980s, particularly because they have high sensitivities, short response times,
are easily synthesized, have good mechanical properties and are particularly useful because
they operate at room temperature. Conductive polymer gas sensors consist of a substrate,
usually silicon, a pair of gold-plated electrodes and a conducting organic polymer coating as
the sensing element. The sensitivity of conductive polymers to VOCs is measured as changes
in electrical resistance. Conducting polymers are usually synthesized by chemical or
electrochemical oxidizing of the corresponding monomers. The most widely used sensor
coating monomers are polypyrrole, polyaniline and polythiophene, but polyacetylene,
polyphenyl vinylene, poly 3,4-thylenedioxythiophene, poly N-vinylcarbazone, poly
thienylenevinylene and many others have been investigated. The common feature of
conductive polymer materials is the presence of a conjugated pi-electron system which
extends over the whole polymer. To speed response times, micrometer size conducting
polymer bridges are formed between the contact bridges [1].

Because conducting polymer sensors operate at ambient temperature, they do not need
heaters and thus are easier to make. The sensors can detect odours at sensitivities of 0.1
parts per million, but 10 to 100 ppm is more usual. One of the main weaknesses of
conductive polymers is their high susceptibility to ambient environmental humidity,
although the sorption of water within polymer films may play an important role in the
mechanism of gas sensitivity. The sensitivities of conducting polymer films are generally an
order of magnitude lower than metal oxide films; nevertheless, measurements at the ppm
and sub-ppm level have been reported for some analytes with suitable electronic circuitry [1].
Another main drawback is that its difficult and time consuming to electropolymerize the
active material, so they exhibit undesirable properties from one batch to another. In addition
some odorants can penetrate the polymer bulk, dragging out the sensor recovery time by
slowing the removal of VOC from the polymer [5].

3.3. Piezoelectric Sensors

Piezoelectric devices working as an electronic nose work on the basis of measuring a change
in mass. Piezoelectric crystals vibrate under the influence of an applied voltage, the mass of
which determines the resonant frequency. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and surface
acoustic wave device are used as electronic noses [5].

In QCM a polymer coating is applied onto the surface during manufacture. The QCM odor
sensor comprises of a slice of single quartz crystal, typically around 1cm in diameter, with
thin-film gold electrodes which are evaporated onto both surfaces of sliced crystal. Polymer
films such as propylene-butyl, polycarbonate and acrylic resin are chosen as the sensing
membrane material. Adsorption of gas onto the surface of the polymer leads to change in
mass on the surface which in turn produces a change in the resonant frequency of the crystal.
This change in frequency is proportional to the concentration of the test material. The
change in frequency also results a change in the phase.QCM devices have been used in
military operations for the detection of explosives and other hazardous compounds and it
could measure a minimum concentration of 1 part per million.

Surface acoustic wave sensors are based on acoustic waves travelling on the surface of
transducers. The SAW device is made of a relatively thick plate of piezoelectric materials
(ZnO and lithium niobate, etc.) with interdigitated electrodes to excite the oscillation of the
surface wave. The SAW is stimulated by applying an alternating current (AC) voltage to the
fingers of the interdigitated electrode to lead to a deformation of the piezoelectric crystal
surface. Adsorption of a gas molecule causes a change in the mass thereby causing a change
in the frequency or phase shift. The advantage with these sensors is that they are easy to
fabricate, while their drawback is that they are temperature sensitive, the noise in the signal
increases with decreasing size. They operate at higher frequencies than QCM and thus can
measure a larger change in frequency but are less sensitive than QCM because of their poor
signal to noise ratios due to larger surface to volume ratio. SAW is cheaper than QCM.

A disadvantage with these piezoelectric sensors is that they require complex electronics in
their manufacture like MEMS. Also there is a need for frequency detectors whose resonant
frequencies change as the active membrane ages.

3.4. MOSFET Sensors

Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) odour sensing devices are base on the
principle that VOCs in contact with a catalytic metal can produce a reaction in the metal.
The reactions products can diffuse to the gate of MOSFET to change its electrical properties.
The MOSFET were firstly reported by Lundstrm in 1975 based on the tendency of a number
of metals to adsorb and dissolve hydrogen [1]. A volatile organic compound produces a
reaction in the sensing layer, which causes the physical property of the gate to change,
thereby changing the threshold voltage and thus the channel conductivity. This device
consists of three layers: a silicon semiconductor, a silicon oxide semiconductor and a
catalytic metal called gate [3]. Noble metal catalysts such as platinum, palladium and iridium
have been coated on metal oxide FET

MOSFET are robust sensors with low sensitivity to humidity but whose selectivity and
sensitivity can be affected by the working temperature (75-200oC), kind of metal gate (as
described) and microstructure of the catalytic metal. Their robust characteristic makes them
particularly useful in environmental applications. They show good sensitivity to toxic and
flammable substances.

3.5. Optical Sensors

Optical sensor systems are somewhat more complex than typical sensor-array systems
having transduction mechanisms based on changes in electrical resistance. Optical sensors
work by means of light modulation measurements and consist of an assortment of
technologies ranging from diverse light sources with optical fibres to various photodiode and
light-sensitive photo detectors. Characteristic properties of the electromagnetic waves such
as amplitude, frequency, phase, and/or state of polarization can be used to advantage.

4. DATA ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC NOSES

Data analysis is an important issue in electronic noses. Its usual role is to allow a correlation
between sensors outputs pattern and the properties of the environment which are the object
of measurement strategy[2]. Data analysis has been the main concern of many research
papers since the first development of the field. As mentioned earlier the data analysis
techniques can be classified into three main categories: graphical analyses, multivariate data
analyses and network analyses. In addition, the use of pre-processing algorithms, such as
averaging, linearization or normalization, improves the performance of these analytical
techniques.

The choice of technique used depends on the sensor array output as well as the type of
information one requires from the electronic nose. In electronic noses pattern recognition
methods are required for the qualitative analysis of odours or of different compounds
present in a certain mixture and multi component analysis methods are required for the
quantitative determination of one or more compounds in a mixture.

Multivariate data analysis, as demonstrated in Figure 3 generally involves data reduction, it

reduces high dimensionality in a multivariate problem where variables are partly correlated
(e.g., sensors with overlapping sensitivities), allowing the information to be displayed in a
smaller dimension (typically two or three). The simplest and most widely used untrained
MDA technique is principal component analysis. PCA is most useful when no known sample
is available, or when hidden relationships between samples or variables are suspected [7].

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is the most developed of all data analysis techniques. ANN
is based on the cognitive process of the human brain. Mathematical functions or neurons
link together to build a network which mimics the human nervous system. A weight is
randomly assigned to each neuron and then adjusted by means of an iterative or learning
process, for example, error back-propagation, until the desired outputs are obtained. The
result of ANN data analysis usually is in the form of a percentage match of identification
elements in the sample with those of aroma patterns from known sources in the reference
library.

5. APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC NOSE

5.1. Introduction
The advent of the electronic nose has opened a variety of applications and new possibilities
in many fields where the presence of odours is the relevant phenomenon. The biggest market
for the electronic nose is the food industry including quality monitoring or grading of food,
beverage and fruits, inspection of food packaging materials. There are also researches being
done in using the electronic nose for disease diagnosis. An electronic nose can examine
odours from the body (e.g., breath, wounds, body fluids, etc.) and identify possible problems.
Electronic noses are found to be effective tools in environmental management. Applications
include that analysis of fuel mixtures, detection of oil leaks, testing ground water for odours,
and identification of household odours [6]. Potential applications include identification of
toxic wastes, air quality monitoring, and monitoring factory emissions. Applications include
that analysis of fuel mixtures, detection of oil leaks, testing ground water for odours, and
identification of household odours. Potential applications include identification of toxic
wastes, air quality monitoring, and monitoring factory emissions.

5.2. Medical Diagnostics And Health monitoring

5.2.1. Introduction

Modern medicine faces the problem and challenge of achieving effective disease diagnoses
through early detections of disease conditions in order to facilitate the application of rapid
treatments, but at the same time dramatically reducing the invasiveness of diagnostic
treatments [6]. Chemical analysis of human biological samples, such as breath, blood, urine,
sweat and skin, are the most common means of diagnosing most pathological conditions.

5.2.2. Respiratory disease diagnostics

It is well known that exhaled human breath contains thousands of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) in gas phase, which can individually be detected by gas chromatography
and mass spectrometry [4]. Such VOCs can potentially be used as non invasive biomarkers of
various biochemical pathways that are operative in health and disease. Interestingly, it has
been demonstrated that there is a link between exhaled VOC and human lung disease, in
particular regarding lung cancer. An electronic nose has been developed that can diagnose
respiratory infections such as pneumonia by comparing smell prints from the breath of a sick
patient with those of patients with standardized readings. It is also being studied as a
diagnostic tool for lung cancer.

5.2.3. Urinary Tract infections

Urinary tract infections have been thoroughly investigated by Di Natale, Aathithan and
Pavlou proposed the use of the electronic nose as a potential diagnostic tool for patients
affected with kidney diseases, by distinguishing traces of blood in urine samples, and for the
rapid identification of E. coli, Proteus spp. and Staphylococcus spp. infections at very high
levels of confidence. Aathithan analyzed 534 clinical urine specimens of which 21 % had
significant bacteriuria indications. The sensitivity and specificity of the electronic nose
compared with conventional cultural counts were 83.5% and 87.5% respectively, but the e-
nose diagnoses were done at significantly lower costs [1].

5.3. Environmental Monitoring

Environmental applications of electronic noses include analysis of fuel mixtures, detection of

oil leaks, testing ground water for odours, and identification of household odours. Potential
applications include identification of toxic wastes, air quality monitoring, and monitoring
factory emissions [6]. Air pollution and many different types of odours are common
pollutants which require monitoring and quantification. The exhaust from automobiles and
trucks is a very good example of environmental air pollution. Water pollution occurs where
there are leaking fuel tanks or where spills have occurred and organics have entered the
aquifers. Water pollution associated with rivers, lakes, and water aquifers represents
approximately 60% of the world environmental problems. Because pollutants in water are
volatile, water pollution can be measured simply by testing the headspace vapours above the
water.

5.4. Food Industry

5.4.1 Introduction

Panels of well trained tasters and smellers are daily utilized to certify the goodness of foods
and their fitting with the human taste. Therefore food analysis represents also a practical
field where an electronic nose can be utilized as an essential support of the human
capabilities. Analysis of fruit ripeness, food and beverage quality check, grading of wines,
meat quality assessment etc are some of its major areas of application in this industry.
Electronic noses can be used to augment or replace panels of human experts. The Electronic
nose has also been applied to both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, for example in the
identification of coffee bean types; instant coffee aromas during processing; the detection of
diacetyl, dimethyl sulphide and amylacetates during fermentation [4].

5.4.2. Analysis of fruit ripening

Since fruit ripening is associated with an accumulation of aromatic volatiles during ripening
for both climacteric and non climacteric fruit, electronic noses seem to hold a great potential
in the fruit industry. Sensor signal used in the electronic nose helps to assess fruit quality
and maturity. Using e noses to monitor fruit freshness and maturity level is advantageous as
it can maximize profits and have better consumer satisfaction. Information from the noses
can help in removal of rotten fruits at the appropriate time which can help in avoiding
storage losses due to rots and fruit diseases [1].

5.4.3. Analysis of meat quality

Meat, especially beef, reaches an acceptable state for consumption after a long period of
storage at low temperature, a storage procedure known as aging. During storage, not only
aging but also bacterial spoilage can occur. Consequently, to obtain appropriately aged meat,
it is desirable to monitor the progress of aging and bacterial spoilage simultaneously. A
direct sensing method for monitoring meat quality can be employed. The sensor is composed
of an Ag/AgCl electrode and a platinum electrode on which putrescine oxidase or xanthine
oxidase were immobilized to estimate bacterial spoilage or the progress of aging, respectively
[7].

5.4.4. Analysis of dairy products

The shelf-life of milk also has been studied. A Fox 4000 electronic nose equipped with 18
sensors and an auto sampler was used to evaluate the growth of total bacteria in milk stored
at ambient temperature and 5 C. The results showed that measurements generated by the
electronic nose could be used to detect both bacterial growth in milk and shelf-life [1].
Gorgonzola and cottage cheese were characterized using polyperrole semiconductor sensors
in the electronic noses.

5.5. Detection Of Explosives

5.5.1. Introduction

Electronic nose is being developed for military and homeland security applications in the
detection of explosives and hazardous chemicals. Currently, many explosives are found by
dogs and other animals with highly sensitive olfactory senses. Developing an efficient hand-
held device has been a challenge because volatile explosive vapours found in large open
spaces are present at low concentrations that range from parts per billion or even parts per
trillion. Bomb detectors might not be very good than electronic noses because they are blind
to many important environmental and olfactory chemicals. However, the diversity of todays
terrorist threats (explosive, chemical, and biological) makes it increasingly apparent that
there is a role for electronic noses with the ability to quickly learn and recognize threat
vapours of any kind. Electronic noses are best used as investigative rather than screening
tools.

5.5.2. Advantages of electronic nose over bomb detectors

A bomb detector is designed to answer the question, what something is not. For example, it
is not a bomb. It provides little or no information on the identity of the object producing the
odour or fragrance. Conversely an electronic nose answers the question what something is.
For example, it is jet fuel. An electronic nose sees everything and misses nothing. A bomb
detector is best used to detect trace amounts of explosives in the presence of high
background chemical vapours. An electronic nose is best used to characterize and recognize
objects by detecting the principal chemical components of the objects aroma. An electronic
nose is limited in its ability to detect trace levels of explosives or chemical weapons by its
inherent and finite dynamic range. Its full sensitivity can be best used when there are no
high-concentration background chemicals. Electronic noses have the ability to recognize an
almost limitless number of chemical vapour threats while bomb/chemical agent detectors
provide the ability to detect specific target chemicals at trace levels while not being affected
by high ambient concentrations of non-target compounds. Electronic noses provide a
different screening capability with inherently more information gathering power than bomb
detectors and help to resolve ambiguities by using a library of aroma signatures. Therefore,
an electronic nose would work well screening the relatively clean air of a commercial office
building, military headquarters and other enclosed spaces such as a shipping container.

5.5.3. Experimental studies: A portable electronic nose

Many experiments were done in developing electronic noses to detect explosives. One of
them is an experiment [exp] that developed an electronic nose which consists of seven
commercially available tin oxide sensors that are doped with different impurities like
palladium, platinum, etc. Impurities are added to change some of the electrical properties of
tin oxide.

It was seen that exposure of sensor film to reacting vapours causes reactions with the oxygen
ions absorbed on the sensor crystal surface, thereby decreasing resistance of the sensor
which is measured as an increase in voltage across a load resistor. The vapour to be detected
is called the target vapour. When a target vapour is introduced into the sensing chamber
each sensor in the array gives a different electrical response. The combined output of the
sensor array forms a fingerprint or signature corresponding to the vapour. Sensor array
response for a toluene vapour sample is shown in figure 5.1. First a reference air sample
(ultra zero air containing 19.5-23% oxygen and the rest nitrogen) is send. This creates the
initial baseline of the sensor array. A toluene vapour sample is then introduced into the
chamber and it is seen that all the seven vapours respond differently to the sample.

Different chemicals can be recognized by the electronic nose if it is trained to do so. So in this
study, the electronic nose was trained to recognize vapour samples of benzene (B), toluene
(T), ethyl benzene (E), and xylene (X) referred to as BTEX compounds. For each of the
analytes, vapour samples were prepared at three different concentration levels: Low (L),
Medium (M), and High (H). A sample of the signatures acquired for the different
concentration levels of the BTEX compounds are shown in Figure. The chemical signatures
obtained from the acquired data were then analyzed using different pattern recognition
techniques.

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a standard tool in modern data analysis - in diverse
fields from neuroscience to computer graphics - because it is a simple, non-parametric
method for extracting relevant information from confusing data sets. It uses simple linear
transformation to reduce multidimensional data sets of possibly correlated variables into a
smaller number of uncorrelated variables called principal components. Well separated
clusters were seen in the PCA analysis of the data obtained for the BTEX compounds from
the sensor array (figure: 5.3).

6. CONCLUSION

An electronic nose is a system originally created to mimic the function of an animal nose.
However, this analytical instrument is more a multi-sensor array technology than a real
nose. Whatever the sensor technology, it is still far from the sensitivity and selectivity of a
mammalian nose. Therefore, its aim is not to totally replace either the human nose or other
analytical methods. A sensory panel is necessary to define the desired product quality which
can then be used to train the system. Traditional analytical methods such as GC-analysis will
always be needed to determine qualitatively or/and quantitatively why one food sample
differs from others. The electronic nose can only perform quick yes or no tests in
comparison to other products. It could occasionally replace sensory analysis and even
perform better than a sensory panel in routine work, or in cases where non-odorous or
irritant gases need to be detected.

Compared to classical and other novel analytical methods, the electronic nose built offers a
cheap and non destructive instrument that (if properly programmed and automated) can be
operated by non specialists. The number of measurements that can be done in a day
compares favourably to other sophisticated methods, such as aromatic profile identification
using chromatography (one of the newest approaches), and since the whole process is
automatic, the cost of each measurement is very low. Therefore, in the near future, the
electronic nose could be envisaged as a global measurement system calibrated for ripeness
determination or a multi instrument system to extract the indicators for which it has been
calibrated.

Food analysis is a very complex discipline. Due to its strict interaction with the quality of life
it is extremely important to improve the performances of the methods in the fields. EN
seems to be a new instrument that can offer the unique advantage of providing fast and low
expensive qualitative analysis of many kinds of foods.

Further work needs to address important limitations. For example, a straightforward

procedure should be devised to detect and correct sensor drift from year to year. Also, the
initial calibration of the system for a given cultivar should take only a few measurements and
be valid, at least, for some consecutive campaigns. Finally, the measurement cycle should be
faster in order to increase throughput. All of these considerations are being studied and
might imply the optimization of the sampling process, the use of more advanced processing
algorithms, and the incorporation of new sensor technologies into the system.

7. REFERENCES

[1] Alphus D. Wilson 1, and Manuela Baietto, Applications and Advances in Electronic-Nose
Technologies, Sensors 2009.9 ISSN 1424-8220, pp. 5099-5134, Jun.2009

[2] C. A. Grimes, E. C. Dickey, and M. V. Pishko, Pattern Recognition Techniques for Odour
Discrimination in Gas Sensor Array, Encyclopaedia of Sensors, Volume X, pp. 117, 2006

[3] Diego L. Garca-Gonzlez and Ramn Aparicio, Sensors: From Biosensors to the
Electronic Nose, Grasas y Aceites 96 Vol. 53. Fasc.1, pp. 96-114, 2002

[4] Donato Di Pierro, Ida A. Casalinuovo, Massimiliano Coletta and Paolo Di Francesco,
Application of Electronic Noses for Disease Diagnosis and Food Spoilage Detection,
Sensors 2006. 6 ISSN 1424-8220, pp. 1428-1439, Nov.2006

[5] H. Troy Nacle, Ricardo Gutiekrez-Osuna And Susan S. Schiffman, The How and Why of
Electronic Noses,IEEE Spectrum, vol.35, no.9, pp. 23-31, Sept. 1998

[6] Lars H. Liden, Paul E. Keller, Lars J. Kangas, Sherif Hashem, and Richard T. Kouzes,
Electronic Noses and Their Applications, IEEE Northcon/Technical Applications
Conference (TAC'95) in Portland, Oregon, USA , Oct. 1995, pp.116

[7] Mahdi Ghasemi-Varnamkhasti, Seyed Saeid Mohtasebi , Maryam Siadat, and Sundar
Balasubramanian, Meat Quality Assessment by Electronic Nose (Machine Olfaction
Technology), Sensors 2009.9 ISSN 1424-8220, pp. 6058-6079, July 2009

[8] Mrinal Kr. Mandal , Rafael Castro, Peter Ajemba, and Mujtaba A. Istihad, An Electronic
Nose for Multimedia Applications, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol.49,
no.4, pp.1431-1437,Nov.2003

[9] Pradeep U Kurup, An Electronic Nose for Detecting Hazardous Chemicals and
Explosives, IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security, pp 144-149, 2008
Labels: computer, electrical, electronics, IT

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