AI Nose
Artificial intelligence to smell
Covid-19 has exposed new long-term physical problems. One of the after effects include losing a sense of smell and taste. The recovery process also varies from person to person. Benjamin Cabe, part of the Azure IoT team for Microsoft, started an experimental project that could see the human-cyborg as a part of the future. From May 2020, he began working on a fake nose that utilises artificial intelligence to smell.
The nose is programmed with TinyML machine learning. It detects the strength of chemicals and describes them as scents using a Grove Multichannel gas sensor. The screen on the back shows the type of scent. It is displayed with a percentage and a descriptor – for instance, an “ambient” for a neutral environment.
Cabe also shared instructions to make your own nose, as well as the source code on GitHub. Providing the code can also lead to an open market of play around with sensory AI. He is open to sharing the process and wants others to improve or build upon the experimentation.
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Why this matters
This prediction of smells in this project is another step closer to the world of sensory artificial intelligence. The impact of the pandemic and its after-effects have led to a stronger reliance towards AI. It becomes a tool and is being used as an extension of the human body. This also builds trust towards AI, as it is designed into everyday lifestyles.