My Robot Can Beat The Snot Out Of Your Robot

May 3rd, 2007 Davis Posted in Robots, Technology |

There are some pretty weird things that show up on the internet and just when I think that technology can’t get any more bizarre, I find out that scientists have created a synthetic form of snot that will help robots distinguish between one smell or another.

We already have a number of devices that are used to analyze scents, but apparently researchers have found that by using a synthetic form of mucus, robots can better distinguish between one scent and another.

Most of the applications using this technology are more for business purposes, than for consumers, but if you consider the potential for this technology, there are more than a few practical uses for a smellbot.

We already have carbon monoxide filters that warn us when there are gas leaks in a home, but what if we could customize these mini robot canaries to detect scents of other hazardous materials? It probably wouldn’t be popular in most living rooms, but if you could build sensors that could also detect things like sulfur or nerve gas, it could help save lives at factories, mines or even public areas like subways and airports.

We could also see homeland security take in interest in the technology to make more advanced bomb snifing robots. If you’ve ever gotten a chance to see police K9 units in action, it’s really impressive. Those dogs are smart and if you are a criminal on the run, they can be scary as hell. The problem of course is that the dogs are expensive to train and they can take a lot of work keeping them well cared for.

The most promising application that we could see though, is in the healthcare industry. As they are refining this technology, scientists are trying to come up with a way to electronically smell funky body odors, in order to spot eye infections, skin diseases and urinary issues.

Researchers think it will be two years before we see synthetic snot start to appear on the market, but if this technology is as effective as they say it is, the uses for the technology will only be limited by our imagination.