Innovative technology for integrating machines with smell capability | 23-09-2024 |

SmartNanotubes Technologies, a recent AIPIA member,  is a German start-up which has developed the world's first highly energy-efficient, multi-channel gas detector chip “Smell iX16” for the mass market, it says. The company uses its technology in networked IoT systems and smart home devices.

The chip is much more sensitive, smaller and energy efficient compared to any product on the market, the company claims. In addition, it says Smell iX16 is significantly less expensive and can be manufactured in larger quantities. The chip is used in a plug-in module with 64 channels, the “Smell Board iX16x4”, also developed by the company.

Applications include leak detection and the protection against hazardous gases, intelligent fire prevention, network-assisted healthcare and indoor air quality monitoring. The novel technology enables tremendous scalability. “Our development has reached the stage where we can produce tens of thousands of sensors each year,” a company spokesman said.

The nanomaterials are highly sensitive and are activated in various ways. They operate similar to the different olfactory receptors in the human nose, in that they are differentially receptive to different molecules and convert the response to different smells into digital signal patterns. With nanomaterials, the smell detection chip is able to detect gases in the ppb range and can thus be up to 100 times more sensitive than conventional gas sensing technologies. Furthermore, Smell iX16 only consumes about 1µW energy, reports the company.

Digital smell patterns are stored in a database, which expands the smell recognition capabilities of electronic devices as it grows. Through artificial intelligence (AI) sensors can recognize what the devices “smell”. This can be compared to the way information is processed by the human olfactory system. Smell is initially collected and analyzed in the olfactory bulb. For recognition and remembering, the cortical brain areas get involved. This evolves over a lifetime as more and more “data” is processed. In a similar manner, the SmartNanotubes' digital smell database is evolving with every new smell measurement.

The company offers custom Development such as custom smell/gas mixture characterization; custom plugin module development; and custom detector development. In addition it  is able to integrate its Smell Board module in a third party device as well as adaptation of Smell iX16 detectors to particular applications to create a use case-specific digital smell database.

Click: MORE AT AIPIA SMART PACKAGING WORLD CONGRESS