Development of Olfactory Assist Mask

Abstract

In this paper, an olfaction aid system is proposed, which allows a human worker to have an enhanced sense of smell when searching for a gas/odor source. The system consists of a gas sensor and an odor generator. It measures the concentration variations of odorous chemical compounds that the user is being exposed to, and presents an odor with amplified concentration variations to the user. Prototype development of the proposed system is reported, and experimental results are presented to show its effectiveness. It has been shown that a user can easily find a gas/odor source by using the olfaction aid system with no special training even if the gas concentration is too low and its odor is indiscernible to humans. The proposed system will contribute to facilitate various gas/odor source localization tasks, e.g., land mine detection in fields, narcotic detection in airports, and victim search at the scenes of disasters, which are currently accomplished by specially trained dogs.