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The sense of smell is a sense for the identity of (typically small) chemical compounds. So there absolutely are machines that can "smell" things. E.g., mass sp
by svara 8y ago
The sense of smell is a sense for the identity of (typically small) chemical compounds.
So there absolutely are machines that can "smell" things. E.g., mass spectrometers, or in a broader sense any technique that can detect specific molecules.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoBut detecting compounds is only a small part of the equation. A significant portion of a dog's brain is engaged to analyze scent data. It's like how we've had CCDs for a really long time but being able to detect objects in the image data they capture is relatively recent.