How Does the Sense of Smell Work?

The scent electronicization uses an electronic nose and an odor generator to transmit various odors through the Internet. The electronic nose can convert odor into electronic information, and the odor generator at the other end of the line can mix the real odor after receiving this odor information.

Electronic odor

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The scent is electronic

The ever-changing computer technology is making our lives more colorful, and in the near future, one of the biggest changes in the lives of computer enthusiasts is that we can use multimedia computers to smell the roses from the Internet. .

After three years of collaborative research, mathematician Bavier Hall of the well-known Israeli Weizman Institute and biochemist Cologne Lanshet have been able to roughly analyze the characteristics of 150 different odors.

They envisioned that if the information about odors could be made electronic, it would be possible to transfer this electronic information to another distant place, where the information would be restored to an odor. They believe that in the near future, we can use an electronic nose and an odor generator to transmit various odors through the Internet. Introduction, the electronic nose can convert odor into electronic information, and the odor generator at the other end of the line can mix the real odor after receiving this odor information.

The two experts have successfully developed a calculation method that can electronically detect the odor detected by the sensor. In addition, they stated that they were technically fully capable of producing odor generators. The scent generator is equipped with more than 150 different "scent basic elements". After receiving the electronic information, it can modulate any kind of scent. The odor generator can also use the information stored on the CD or DVD to reproduce the odor. The process and image processing are similar, except that it is more technically complicated.

From this perspective, computer enthusiasts will soon expand their equipment-multimedia computers will add a new medium: smell. In the future, when there is a gun battle on the screen, the smell of smoke will be permeated in the computer room. When we sit in the house and watch a TV broadcast of a Formula One race, we can also smell the exhaust gas emitted by the high-horsepower engine and the smell of burned tar; What's more interesting is that when presenting a red rose to a beloved girl on Valentine's Day, the sweetheart who is thousands of miles away can clearly smell the strong floral fragrance of red roses. It can be said that no matter it is scent movie, scent TV, or the Internet, the smell of flowers, smoke or other odors will soon be no longer a dream.

Generation and transmission of gases

To understand the scent electronics, we must first understand how scent is generated and transmitted? How does the olfactory organ perceive scent? Professor Luo Dehan is the leader of the bionic olfactory / taste sensing technology research laboratory of School of Information Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, He has been engaged in machine olfactory / taste sensing theory, technology and application research for many years. In the interview, Professor Luo told the author that odor is the reaction of chemical molecules in the olfactory organ. When the molecules of a substance diffuse into the air, they are sent to our nasal cavity by the air and stimulate the nerves of the human, so our nose recognizes this smell. Different substances emit different odor molecules. Due to the different structures of these odor molecules, their characteristics are also different.

How to distinguish odor

Professor Luo further explained that the necessary condition for the human body to distinguish the odor is that the odorous substance must continuously volatilize molecules into the air and be sucked into the nasal cavity, and then reach the brain through the olfactory nerve, which forms the sense of smell by the brain. The human brain can recognize and remember a wide variety of different odors, because humans have a gene group of about 1,000 different genes (about 3% of human genes), and it is they that produce nearly a thousand types of odor receptors ( Note: All odor receptors are related proteins, but there are differences in specific details. This can explain why they can be triggered by different odor molecules). These receptors are located on odor receptor cells and are used to identify inhaled odor molecules. The information is then transmitted to the olfactory bulb, which acts as a nasal-brain relay station. There is a delicately structured "olfactory layout" that helps the brain accurately recognize these odors and enable people to recognize about 10,000 different flavors.

Composition of smell

The human olfactory system receives odor signals from olfactory receptors. The human olfactory receptors are located on the upper nasal passage and the upper olfactory epithelium after the nasal septum. From the perspective of bionics, the composition and mechanism of human olfactory receptors can be summarized into three parts: (1) nasal epithelium (primary), which is the first place to receive gas and generate signals; (2) olfactory bulb (secondary ), The type of gas is formed here by "mirror image"; (3) the cerebral cortex, the connection between information is formed and stored here. Through this process, various odors are recognized by the human body.

Electronic principle

With the continuous improvement of science and technology, odorization can be realized. Professor Luo introduced to reporters that any odor has its unique properties, which can cause a physical or chemical reaction with a certain chemical substance, causing a change in a certain physical quantity (such as changes in mass, color, electrical characteristics, etc.) through specific signals The conversion mechanism can convert it into an electrical signal, which can be transmitted electronically. At present, the realization methods of "smell electronicization" can be summarized into three types, namely, bionics method, digital method, and the method of combining bionics and digital.

The bionics method is to imitate the biological olfactory system. It can identify and memorize any different multi-component mixed odor in real time, and use the Internet to transmit information, and then generate odors from odor elements at the receiving terminal. Formation of a database of odor characteristics. At work, the odor sender detects the odor characteristics and transmits the odor characteristic number via the Internet. The receiving terminal selects the stored odors from the odor characteristic database for playback according to the odor characteristic number. The method of combining bionics and digitization is to pass at the odor sender The bionic olfactory device detects the odor in real time, transmits the overall odor information using the Internet, and plays the odor from the odor library at the receiving terminal.

Development

prospect

Although there are still many technical difficulties, the electronicization of odor now has a certain technical foundation. More importantly, electronic odor has a wide range of applications, especially today and in the future when the Internet has become an indispensable content in people's lives. As long as the above-mentioned key technical problems are solved, odor network transmission will surely become a subsidiary product that people love.

At present, some primary electronic odor products have appeared on the market, and the research and application of electronic odor are constantly developing. There are reports that Shiseido in Japan is developing a device that transmits perfume odors over the Internet. It can confirm the odor required by the user through the computer, and then emit the specified odor through the specific device. France Telecom is also conducting research on transmitting odors over the Internet. The computer needs to be connected to a "scent generator" that already contains various flavors. After clicking the perfume sample shown on the website, the user will receive a message of the sample, and then they can smell the smell through the "scent generator".

The largest computer product exhibition in the United States, "COMDEX", has an odor transmission sample on display. The "iSmell" fragrance synthesizer is a bit like a shark's shark fin. Its single shape is very special. It has a built-in box of various odor sources, and realizes various fragrances by combining various odors.

It is foreseeable that with the in-depth development of computer olfactory research, the electronic smell of the Internet will be realized, and our lives will become more convenient, fast and colorful.

Long-distance transmission

The "smell odorization" envisioned by Israeli scientists is, in short, the process of "smell collection-long-distance electronic transmission of odor (different from other odor transmission methods)-odor reproduction". So what are the current technical difficulties to achieve this process? To realize odorization, the key lies in odor collection and odor reproduction. The technical difficulties that need to be broken through are the research and development of odor collection devices and odor generation devices. The first is the development of a bionic olfactory detection device. At present, there is a certain technical basis for odor collection research, and it has obtained preliminary applications in some fields. However, because the technology of bionic olfactory sensors is still immature, it is necessary to realize multi-component mixed odor collection. It is very difficult.

The development of odor generators is also a difficult problem, because the odor components are extremely complex. It is very difficult to generate multiple different odor elements and mix them in different proportions. The research on odor reproduction has only just begun internationally. It will take time to implement this technology. As for the long-distance electronic transmission of odor, it is the application of network technology to convert the collected odor information into electronic information and transmit it to any long-distance computer receiving terminal through the Internet. The current network transmission technology can basically meet the requirements for such electronic information transmission of odor.

the problem we are facing

Due to the difficulty of manufacturing the odor signal acquisition device and the odor generator, the research cost should be high under the current technological level, especially the cost of researching the bionics odor electronics will be higher. Therefore, the realization of odor electronics The application is yet to come. However, Professor Luo also pointed out that if a digital method is used to realize the electronicization of a limited number of odors, the cost will be much lower. It only uses a few sensors to detect specific types of odors and can generate specific odors through the odor library. We still have a lot of work to do to realize the odorization of electrons.

Development status

Japan's NTT has launched a bold idea: plans to deliver fragrance through the Internet.

This scent delivery service will be completed by the collaboration of two scent encoding and decoding servers. First, the fragrance transmitting party parses the fragrance into several digital symbols through the device, and then transmits the digital symbols to the receiver through the network. The receiver's device decodes the digital symbols and restores the fragrance the transmitting party wants to deliver.

Back then, people thought that long-distance transmission of speech was a myth, but today it has become a reality. Similarly, who can say that NTT's idea is too naive?