How an electronic nose work

These two videos talks about the technology of “electronic noses”:

If you take one of these electronic noses into a bar, it tells us something uncomfortable. It used to be that secondhand smoke masked bar odors, but now that the smoke is gone the odors are apparent:

Smoke has cleared, but Chicago bars still smell

From the article:

“The bar is a three times more intense smell than the McCormick Place men’s room, or 15 times more or 16 times more intense odor than a coffee shop, and was almost twice as smelly as an animal shelter,” said Hirsch, founder of Chicago’s Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, citing odor intensity levels.

While secondhand smoke is hazardous to our health, the smoke hid some of the stink.

NASA is also interested in the technology on the space station:

Electronic Nose

This is a nice description of how the JPL eNose works:

Welcome to the Electronic Nose!

The “sensors and molecular modeling” section goes into more detail.