A brief history of electronic noses

The human nose is still the primary ‘instrument’ used to assess the smell or flavour of various industrial products today, despite considerable and sustained attempts to develop new electronic instrumentation capable of mimicking its remarkable ability. In this paper we review the research effort that has been carried out over the past 25 years or so to create an electronic nose. In doing so, we first provide a definition for the term electronic nose, and then discuss some of the technologies that have been explored in what is essentially an intelligent chemical array sensor system. Finally, we summarize the applications of electronic noses to date and suggest where future applications may lie.