Coffee and the Artificial Nose

Short piece on coffee and the artificial nose. It was an area that we examined closely and tried to understand from both linking to the real world world of the agricultural commodity called coffee, and how it related to simulated process changes like roasting. I still have my doubts that these methods can yet detect the parts-per-billion requirements that drive coffee flavor. Still all these sensor improvements are worth following, the sense of detailed machine smell will ultimately be solved. Much more in this blog on the sense of smell.
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The AI Nose

Have followed the idea of an 'Artificial Nose' for decades, we were first interested in using it as a automatic way to to evaluate and duplicate coffee blends and their components in the supply chain.  

Also, the argument was if we could digitize  such analyses, we could use that to deliver scents where we wanted to.  We did that in places like the retail store shelf and even the store aisle.   The solutions were never completely satisfactory.   The method here claims to use deep learning.  Continue to follow related tech, see the scent tag below.

An AI ‘nose’ can remember different scents
It can also detect potentially silent but deadly gas mixtures.    by Timothy J. Seppala, @timseppala  .... " 

Bitebot: An Artificial Mouth

From Wired and New Scientist. Here is the original article. Seems fairly simplistic, but it points to the problem of how we might virtualize taste. Closely related smell has been attempted by various tries at an 'artificial nose', none of them completely successful as yet. This appears to be largely a way to create a mechanical schematic of taste.

Detecting Odors

I often mention research in this area because we spent considerable time looking at the idea of an 'artificial nose' to effectively  test quality in products, especially coffee, but in other areas as well.    Here more in the area.  Note the use of 'Neuromorphic', or brain-inspired chips to address the problem.

Intel Trains Neuromorphic Chip to Detect Odors
in VentureBeat
By Kyle Wiggers

Intel and Cornell University researchers have trained Intel's Loihi neuromorphic processor to identify 10 materials from their odors, demonstrating how neuromorphic computing could be applied to detect precursor smells and potentially find explosives and narcotics, diagnose diseases, and notice signs of smoke and carbon monoxide. The chip was trained by configuring the circuit schematic of biological olfaction, using a dataset compiling the activity of 72 chemical sensors in response to various scents. The researchers said the method kept Loihi's memory of the scents intact, and the chip has "superior" recognition accuracy compared with conventional techniques. Said Intel's Nabil Imam, "This work is a prime example of contemporary research at the crossroads of neuroscience and artificial intelligence and demonstrates Loihi's potential to provide important sensing capabilities that could benefit various industries." ... '

Smell Science by Machine Olfaction

You can see from recent posts that I have been researching smell science. Not too long ago I mentioned MIT's digital nose. I have been working my way through Russell Brumfield's densely provocative Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communications in the Information Age. No aspect of smell research and delivery uncovered. On the topic of artificial noses, also called machine olfaction, he mentions the E-Nose, which came out of CIT, and was licensed to Cyrano Sciences and became the portable Cyranose 320. (You cannot make that up) Put to use in the food industry to detect spoilage and other toxic emissions. Mentioned in an IDEO case study. Eventually was bought by Smiths Detection to be determine if it could also be used for physical diagnostics. I see it is no longer featured in their technology list. So that may mean there has been a pause in development of machine olfaction. The MIT nose may be an indicator of new interest in the area.

Chefs Using AI

 We looked at some early work done by IBM using Watson in this area.  May have mentioned it here.

AI: Why chefs are turning to artificial intelligence  By Michael Dempsey  in the BBC

Technology of Business reporter

Nicolas Maire is the model of a professional French chef with years of experience and 18 Michelin stars under his belt, a man who dominates his kitchen dispensing nuggets of culinary wisdom as he prepares food for his guests.'  Today, this kitchen is buried inside a sprawling corporate HQ on the outskirts of Geneva. Mr Maire works for Firmenich, a business with a perfume industry pedigree stretching back to 1895.

Firmenich's nose for a new market saw it diversify into food ingredients as the public appetite for alternatives to meat led to a scramble to put plant-based food on supermarket shelves.  The company says there is a global market for plant-based meat substitutes of $25bn (£19bn) and believes this will grow to $200bn by 2030.

To help perfect the flavours of these innovative foods, Mr Maire has a new sous-chef in the form of Sam, an artificial intelligence (AI) robot.