Olfactory Interfaces: Recent Trends and Challenges of E-Noses in Human–Computer Interaction

Abstract

An electronic nose (e-nose) is an electronic device composed of one or more odor sensors, a microcontroller, electronic components, and software that acquire and analyze a gas or volatile organic compound (VOC) present in an environment. E-noses attempt to identify the gas or VOC based on their chemical composition, sending electronic data about the detected odor signature to a computer, akin to an animal nose identifying odors and sending electrochemical signals to an animal brain. Then, the computer attempts to identify the perceived odor. E-noses have been used in human–computer interaction in specialized computing applications containing a user interface (UI) with a purpose: supporting its user to identify an odor and its properties and communicating information about the odor on the UI.

Keywords

• e-nose
• olfactory interfaces
• smell
• odor
• sensor
• human–computer interaction