Predicting Odor Pleasantness with an Electronic Nose

• Published in: PLoS computational biology Vol. 6; no. 4; p. e1000740
• Main Authors: Haddad, Rafi, Medhanie, Abebe, Roth, Yehudah, Harel, David, Sobel, Noam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.04.2010; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Biotechnology; Computational biology; Computational Biology/Computational Neuroscience; Correlation (Statistics); Culture; Digital transmission; Discrimination (Psychology); Electronics - instrumentation; Electronics - methods; Environmental monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Experiments; Humans; Methods; Middle Aged; Models, Biological; Molecular Conformation; Neuroscience/Cognitive Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Sensory Systems; Odorants - analysis; Odors; Oils, Volatile - chemistry; Olfactory Perception; Physiological aspects; Ratings & rankings; Reproducibility of Results; Smell; Studies; Ethiopia; Israel; Environmental Monitoring; Reproducibility of Results; Artificial Intelligence; Humans; Middle Aged; Molecular Conformation; Electronics; Olfactory Perception; Oils, Volatile; Algorithms; Odors; Models, Biological; Discrimination (Psychology); Adult; Culture
• ISSN: 1553-7358; 1553-734X; 1553-7358
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000740

A primary goal for artificial nose (eNose) technology is to report perceptual qualities of novel odors. Currently, however, eNoses primarily detect and discriminate between odorants they previously "learned". We tuned an eNose to human odor pleasantness estimates. We then used the eNose to predict the pleasantness of novel odorants, and tested these predictions in naïve subjects who had not participated in the tuning procedure. We found that our apparatus generated odorant pleasantness ratings with above 80% similarity to average human ratings, and with above 90% accuracy at discriminating between categorically pleasant or unpleasant odorants. Similar results were obtained in two cultures, native Israeli and native Ethiopian, without retuning of the apparatus. These findings suggest that unlike in vision and audition, in olfaction there is a systematic predictable link between stimulus structure and stimulus pleasantness. This goes in contrast to the popular notion that odorant pleasantness is completely subjective, and may provide a new method for odor screening and environmental monitoring, as well as a critical building block for digital transmission of smell.