odour detection

Cathal Garvey cathalgarvey at cathalgarvey.me
Tue Jun 10 02:42:05 PDT 2014


It would be my opinion, off the top of my head, that this approach would
not be useful in a "mass surveillance" context. Many of the volotiles
under study would be abundant in ambient air pollution or even in clear
country air; that they have diagnostic significance is tied to the
context of a direct breath test, for example.

So, I can imagine a mass-surveillance apparatus attempting to detect
ketones as part of a system that detects diabetics or drunkards, but
where a simple breeze is enough to mask a potential match, and a rotting
piece of fruit discarded on the subway floor is enough to swamp the
sensors for hours.

Smell is all about context, and it's the sort of context I am doubtful
could be made useful in a computerised fashion for mass surveillance.
Quite unlike, for example, sound, vision or even smell, which are far
more easily localisable and distinguishable.

On 10/06/14 08:21, Matej Kovacic wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>> be expected to vary depending on his recent diet, or perhaps whether he
>> has been ill recently.  I have heard occasional references to the idea
>> of diagnosing people of various illnesses based on the presence of
>> minute amounts of chemicals in breath (a neat idea, BTW).  
> 
> There is some serious research about this:
> 
> - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i-Rx-Nsf3E
> 
> - http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v103/n4/full/6605810a.html
> 
> -
> http://pubget.com/paper/18594325/analysis-of-volatile-organic-compounds-in-the-exhaled-breath-for-the-diagnosis-of-lung-cancer
> 
> - http://www.jthoracdis.com/article/view/1560/html
> 
> A little older research:
> -
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/02/28/breath-odor-can-be-key-to-detecting-cancer/
> 
> - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3682722.stm
> 
> -
> http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2011/01/17/gut.2010.218305.short?q=w_gut_ahead_tab
> 
> P. S: If anyone has any recent information about this (especially
> clinical tests), please let me know. It is an area which is of a great
> interest to me.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Matej
> 

-- 
T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA
P: +353876363185
W: http://indiebiotech.com
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