So far, the plaque has been tested on rats, with a dog version that will appear later, says Lavella. In the demonstration film viewed only by Wired, the scientist from Kanajeri uses a wand to capture the air sample with four different Petri dishes, each of which contains a different fragrance. The wand of the sound signal and sends the fragrance molecules through the capsule tube, in which there is a rat equipped with a nose interface -computers. A few seconds after the animal smells of the smell, the information about the fragrances is sent to the phone, which is on the pod. The mobile application displays the name of the relationship that smells of the animal, as well as the result of quality, which takes into account the accuracy and concentration of particles.
Currently, Canaery’s rat prototype can detect the acceleration of arson and smokeless powder used in ammunition, as well as methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl.
In mammals, the nose and brain work together to detect fragrances. When the fragrance molecules get into the nostrils, they bind to olfactory receptors. People have about 450 types of olfactory receptors, while dogs have twice as much. Each fragrance stimulates various combinations of receptor types, producing a unique electrical signal. This signal is sent to the olfactory bulb for processing. Lavella compares the surface of the olfactory bulb to the chessboard. When the smell appears, squares illuminate the chessboard in a specific pattern.
Canary uses AI software to recognize these patterns and associate them with smells. After the plaque, scientists expose the animal to the smell for training AI models. Lavella claims that the software can be trained in about three sessions. During these sessions, scientists depict the animal over two dozens of samples of the same smell. Later, the animal is again exposed to the smell to confirm the AI models.
The current plaque, which is implanted in a rat demo, has 128 electrodes that capture neural signals from a olfactory bulb. Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are working on a novel board with 767 electrodes to capture more information. “This new generation device will allow us to have more efficiency in the field compared to complex background fragrances and disrupting the fumes that are in the air,” says Lavella.
Decoding the smell is by no means a novel undertaking. Scientists are working on “e-nose” technology to detect fragrances over the last 40 years. These devices operate chemical sensors to convert fragrance molecules into electrical signals, which are then analyzed by the pattern recognition system to identify the source of the fragrance. But these devices were historically able to detect only a diminutive range of fragrances.
“Animals can do things that we cannot get current sensors, so this is an intelligent way to circumvent this problem,” says Joel Mainland, Olfaction researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Non -Pro -Profit Research Institute in Philadelphia.