Concept: French startup Aryballe has rolled out NeOse Advance, a digital olfaction solution that can detect, embed, and recognize various odors. The device can find its application in automotive and consumer industries like food and beverage, appliances, and personal care. The startup has also launched a cloud-enabled software Aryballe Suite that collects data from the device and allows customers to access and customize analysis of odors based on their needs.
Nature of Disruption: NeOse Advance is a sensor device, which is smaller than a paperclip in size, is based on Aryballe’s silicon photonics biosensor-based platform. It can be easily integrated into any existing smart sensor network. The device works by attracting and detecting odor molecules released by using chemical sensors and spectroscopy to analyze peptides. It then generates a unique digital signature for each item. The device collects and organizes all these digital signatures in a database and utilizes them to authenticate quality. The solution is integrated with the Aryballe Suite software, which assists users in determining quality through numerous data sources in a shorter period. The cloud-based data storage system provides indefinite access to data. It offers multiple features including odor analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), distance matrix, and cluster quality scores.
Outlook: Digital olfaction has gained traction in recent times across various industries. For example, the technology can help smart home appliance companies to develop new solutions based on growing consumer expectations for seamless experiences. In automotive, digital nose can assist in material characterization, prevention of hazardous and intoxicated driving, and vehicle health maintenance. Hyundai recently invested in and collaborated with Aryballe to leverage NeOse Advance to notify drivers about the interior conditions of their vehicles. American International Flavors & Fragrances has partnered with the startup to develop odor sensing and quality control applications in the food, fragrance, and cosmetics industries. In a nutshell, digital olfaction can fuse scientific areas like organic chemistry, silicon engineering, photonics, and machine learning to transform quality control in many consumer markets.