Recent Developments in Human Odor Detection Technologies

Abstract

Human odor detection technologies have drawn attention due to the wide possibility of potential applications they open up in areas such as biometrics, criminal investigation and forensics, search for survivors under rubble, and security checkpoint screening. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has been the most successful and powerful analytical approach developed to date for human odor analysis, and hundreds of human odorants have been identified using this tool. GC/MS has already enabled a good understanding to be obtained regarding human odor composition. Over the past two decades, research and development of E-nose technologies has accelerated at a fast pace, and in time may provide a complementary technology to those based on GC/MS. During the past several years, proof of concept has been demonstrated on the application of E-noses for real-time human odor detection and classification. In this review, the current state of technologies will be given on human odor analysis, detection, and classification, along with a discussion of each technology with a specific focus on recent developments. Technologies covered in this article include: various E-nose technologies; as well as gas chromatography integrated with mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry, or other gas detectors. Other technologies will also be described such as optical sensors that have recently emerged for human odor detection, and the possibilities of exploiting absorbance spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging.

Design of Multi-Biometrics for Fake Fingerprint Detection through Body Odor

“…The main reason for including functionalities of e-nose is that the recent developments in e-nose are in such a way that it differentiates body odor of human beings even though they maintain same lifestyles and activities and it is also developed in such a way that it concentrates on human body odor even if the acquired odor sample has some traces of other external odors like perfumes and deodorants. [15,16] As to future research, we intend to implement and develop the proposed model. It is hoped that the design proposed in this paper will open the door to the field of the multibiometric system with fingerprint and body odor recognition.…”

Advancements in Microfabricated Gas Sensors and Microanalytical Tools for the Sensitive and Selective Detection of Odors

“…Thus, the working principle of GC-systems rely on the different “retention times” that analytes spend inside the separation column, which depend on factors such as the nature of VOCs and the stationary phase or the operating temperature [ 214 ]. Even though conventional GC systems are highly precise and selective towards hundreds of different VOCs, they need to operate in big laboratory facilities, and normally require of sampling processes to collect, store, and transport gas samples directly from the source [ 215 , 216 ]. In addition, preconcentration activities are generally required to ensure the good performance and selectivity of these systems [ 217 ].…”

Odor in textiles: A review of evaluation methods, fabric characteristics, and odor control technologies

“…For the separation and quantification of complex mixtures collected from human participants, GC-MS is more commonly employed as it facilitates the identification of the individual compounds in these mixtures. 62 Before chemical analysis can be conducted, it is necessary to extract volatile compounds first, which may involve either extracting the compounds retained within the textile substrate (e.g. reference 8) or collecting compounds from the headspace above the textile (e.g.…”