Adamant Technologies has created a processor for Apple's iPhone that "can take the sense of smell and taste and digitize them." The company's founder and CEO Sam Khamis said the product utilizes around 2,000 sensors in order to identify smells. Comparatively, there's approximately 400 sensors in the average human nose.
The startup, based in San Francisco, is backed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and has started the production of chips at a factory located in Austin, Texas. It expects to release apps designed for the chips within 1-2 years.
Adamant is also planning to manufacture a device that will plug in to the iPhone and power a number of apps. One such app would apparently warn users when their breath is not as fresh as they would like.
"Halitosis, or bad breath tracking, is something we're really interested in," said Khamis. He added that the app will tell users if they have bad breath and indicate what exactly caused it. Other apps planned by the firm include one that will test blood sugar for diabetics and measure blood-alcohol levels.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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noob2222 The new Siri app won't talk to you when you have bad breath, instead coughs and complains about the smell.Reply
on an interesting note, this will be quite the interesting toy to have at parties. Blood Alcohol Content meter FTW. -
back_by_demand Activate the App and get it to smell the iPhone, yep, that's bullshit alright, then the owner, yep smells like smug hipsterReply -
j2j663 So they list uses like blood sugar tracking and BAC measurements but what they are really saying is screw solving real problems what we are really interested in is ridding the world of bad breath!Reply -
MichaelSP :/ at this rate, everyone will have to check with their phone/tablet/computer that their own existence is permitable each day. Who needs to go around with a phone to check what everything smells like, as a standard everyday device. For people who perhaps cannot smell perhaps, but most people can.Reply -
robochump Great for dating! hehe But yeah, its very dependent on the hardware of the device. Doubt this will happen but good to know they are trying!Reply -
dalethepcman "My job, was to gently remove the stick from their asses, wave it under my nose and give it a good sniff then proclaim "Your right your $hit doesn't stink," then oh so gently re-insert the stick from whence it came." - Lewis blackReply
Looks like they will have an app for that soon. -
weierstrass It could be useful if it would warn allergic people when they get into dangerous environment.Reply