How will the future of the electronic nose develop?

What if we can better understand how allergens and pollutants can irritate people with asthma or other lung diseases?

In this regard, technologies such as the electronic nose may be helpful.

"The electronic nose is a device composed of an electronic chemical sensor array and an appropriate pattern recognition system," explained Zheng Yangong, an IEEE member. From this, Zheng further explained how this technology works and how it interacts with the environment (hint: it is actually not like a human nose.)

The electronic nose uses sensors to identify gas mixtures, also known as breath prints. "The gas mixture in the air reacts with the surface of the chemical sensor, resulting in changes in conductivity. These changes are then converted into electrical signals to create a specific response pattern for the gas mixture," Zheng said.

This technology can compare the gas in the air with the previously recorded respiratory fingerprints. Air pollution and pollen from different reaction patterns, so the nose can tell the difference.

Can the electronic nose detect asthma?

"Human respiration is composed of a large number of volatile organic compounds (VOC) molecules and concentrations," Zheng said. "The mixture of volatile organic compounds provides basic information about the physiological and pathological processes related to respiratory diseases. There are special volatile organic compounds in the breath of asthma patients."

Zheng said: "Exhalation analysis through the electronic nose has proven quite good discrimination ability, and the accuracy of cross-validation is higher than 90%, which can be used to distinguish asthma patients.

This means that the electronic nose can detect whether someone has asthma or other respiratory diseases. Once the nose understands the breath fingerprints, it can compare the response patterns of different human breaths.

The electronic nose can also detect other diseases and chronic diseases through respiratory fingerprint monitoring. An IEEE Xplore article found that the electronic nose can be a non-invasive diagnostic tool for monitoring chronic kidney disease and hemodialysis.

How will the future of the electronic nose develop?

Currently, electronic noses cannot be sold and purchased, but their research and technology are making great progress.

Zheng said: "Electronic nose breath analysis is definitely very complex and challenging, but the clinical application is essential to ensure its development. Breath analysis provides patient metabolism and microbiological information, and it is an invasive procedure with limited cost. , I believe it will play a key clinical role in the future."