Enter the electronic nose or “e-nose” created by researchers at Sydney University of Technology. Associate Professor of Engineering. Steven Sue has worked with a small team of PhD students and chemists to create a prototype (internally called NOS.E) that mimics the human olfactory system. It has eight gas sensors that pick up odor molecules from a bottle of liquid. Depending on the detected molecule, the e-nose sensor array generates a unique signal matrix and consequently sends the data to a computer, where a machine learning algorithm calculates the properties of the fluid.
Dr. Sue and his team have trained their algorithms to identify different whiskey brands, geographical origins and styles. They had three mixed malt and three single malt whiskey e-nose “sniff” bottles. Of the team StudyThe IEEE Censorship Journal, published this month, says that E-Nock Whiskey has reached 96.15 percent accuracy for brand names, 100 percent for origin and 92.31 percent for style classification.
Unfortunately the e-nose does not look like a human nose. (Photo: UTS)
“An expert can distinguish between whiskey, but it is difficult for most consumers to distinguish between deceptive drinks,” the study said. “Complex chemical and analytical analyzes have been able to distinguish between whiskeys; however, such analyzes require time-consuming, complex, trained professionals and can only be performed in a laboratory.” In contrast, researchers believe that the e-nose is capable of detecting the characteristics of six whiskeys in four minutes – a potential game-changer in terms of quality control and counterfeiting.
So far e-nose has been used to distinguish between different types of whiskey, cognac, wine, perfume, and even illegal animal parts, which are often sold on the black market. Dr. Su’s team hopes that it will eventually find its way to the medical field, where it can help diagnose the disease.
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