Better than a dog? Maybe…

We already have technology that can see and hear. Now the ability to smell is getting real traction. A team of scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, has invented an artificial olfactory system that can smell the freshness of meat. It’s been tested on commercially packaged chicken, fish, and beef meat samples left to age with surprising accuracy. Maybe a new smartphone app to take to the supermarket?  

Digital scent technology, or e-noses, is a precursor to technology refined to detect bombs, health conditions, including COVID, and even help brew better beer. It has use cases across military and defense, healthcare, food and beverage, machine failure, and waste management. Not surprisingly, military and healthcare applications seem to be the dominant growth drivers.

Air and odor pollution is an increasingly sensitive issue in many parts of the world and is a growing opportunity, for example, in Malaysia back in July 2019, authorities in Malaysia had to dispatch several teams to comb Batang Kali, which was considered to be the source of foul smell which spread through the region. A digital e-nose would have been a big help. 

VCs are throwing serious dollars at it. Aromyx Corp. in Mountain View, CA, recently raised a $10M Series A to develop a digital nose that reacts in the presence of a variety of diseases, including pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and malaria. Stratuscent based in Quebec, raised $500k in seed funding and an exclusive patent license from NASA to develop a technology to “smell” coronavirus in the air. There are countless other techs in development worldwide, so it’s coming.

Do we call it smelltech? Odortech? Scentech has a nice ring to it. Let’s go with scentech… yes?