Odor Recorder

Abstract

An odor recorder is a gadget to record smells as well as reproduce them. The odor recorder to record the recipe of multiple-component odor, the dynamical change of the odor recipe even under the environmental change, such as humidity and temperature, has been so far studied. The methods to solve the mixture quantification problem, such as multiple linear regression, partial least squares, neural network, etc., are described. Furthermore, the active odor sensing system, which explores the recipe of the blended odor with its output pattern’s similarity to that of the target odor, is described. Then, an example of the actual implementation of the odor recorder based upon a QCM sensor array is shown. Based upon that odor recorder, the experimental result of the fruit flavors made up of 4-8 odor components is described. Then a mass spectrometer without GC for determining the recipe of a few dozen odor components is explained. The mass spectrometry is useful to overcome the collinearity problem. However, the accuracy of the recipe estimation is insufficient when the number of odor-component candidates is more than a few hundred. The selection methods of odor components among the huge number of candidates and its application to the fruit flavors are explained. Finally, the method to find an appropriate set of odor components and the simulation result using mass spectrum database are described.