Special sensor in the phone will save from fire

Experts from Germany have created a microscopic sensor for gadgets that allows you to "read" smells.

The project leader is physicist Martino Sommer. Together with a group of colleagues from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he managed to create a device that allows not only to detect the presence of various odors, but also to notify the owner in case of increased danger. At the moment, the sensor without any problems determines the presence in the air of particles of smoke and fire that signal a fire.

In the future, the device is planned to be improved by expanding its functionality with the ability to determine the degree of freshness of products and some others. It is expected that the improved model will be a great help in everyday life.

The human nose has in its arsenal more than one million olfactory cells. Repeat this is not easy.When creating the sensor, specialists used special nanofibres, which can identify gas mixtures of varying degrees of complexity. After determination, the system converts the received data into various signals. That is, the device must first be “taught” to smells, and only after that it will be able to help you identify these smells.

The only task that, according to scientists, has remained unresolved, is reduced to the impossibility of distinguishing the system from the same odors with different atmospheric features. For example, the smell of flowers in rainy weather is somewhat different from their smell in the conditions of heat and bright sun.

After resolving this problem, the sensor created will be able to distinguish odors just like a human nose.