Sniffer algorithm leads robots to faint, faraway scents

Although having the boys in blue tracking you down based on your unique aroma fingerprints might seem frightening, just envision the terror that would ensue if an ultra-keen robot was onto your trail from miles away. Massimo Vergassola and and colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, have created an algorithm that can actually instruct a robot "how to move in order to gather as much olfactory information as possible." The mathematical formula allows a machine to home in on "even the faintest of scents" by analyzing which direction the smell is getting weaker or stronger in, the frequency of the whiffs, and eventually, it could even take into account disturbances such as wind gusts. After trialing the algorithm on computer-based robotic models searching for a scent, he found that the theoretical guinea pigs moved in "S-like patterns" to sniff things out, which is quite similar to the method used by moths (renowned for their sense of smell) when trying to discover the source of an odor. Researchers state that implementing the technique into an actual robot would be fairly "straightforward," and could also be used for other tasks that involve "searching with limited information" -- or alternatively, on bots who are already trained to chase down foes.

[ph @ Jan 27th 2007 2:08AM]

When I first read that, I thought the robots fainted when they smelled something. :)

[Deluxe @ Jan 27th 2007 4:47AM]

Hahaha, I feel validated now that I know that I wasn't the only one who thought that.

[rawr @ Jan 27th 2007 6:50PM]

Me too!

And all the diodes on my left side are hurting...

/too obscure?

[hc5duke @ Jan 27th 2007 3:33AM]

Finally, the smell-o-scope from Futurama!

[Mickey Jones @ Jan 27th 2007 6:14AM]

I for one welcome our finger-pulling odor-sniffing overlords.

The automated silicon based entity that smelt it, dealt it.

[Nick Spacek @ Jan 27th 2007 11:12AM]

Awesome, haven't you ever had a funky smell in your place and wondered where the heck it was coming from? This is a great invention, hope it comes to the market soon!

[stuart "not a robot" bird @ Jan 28th 2007 8:36AM]

The days of anonomous farting are over

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/27/sniffer-algorithm-leads-robots-to-faint-faraway-scents/

[Philippe Fraser @ Jan 29th 2007 9:28AM]

That comma is definitely not appropriate! It makes it give the sentence a difference, unintended meaning!

Adjectives don't need commas to separate them, as in "The big red bus".