Two robots that warn users of bad body odour have been unveiled in Japan. One has the appearance of a woman’s head and ranks the operator’s breath, declaring an “emergency” if it fell into the worst category, while the other looks like a dog and growls when it comes across stinking feet.
The machines use commercially available sensors, highlighting the development of the technology.
The robots have been developed by the Fukuoka-based company CrazyLabo and the Kitakyushu National College of Technology.
However, artificial olfaction sensors – or electronic noses became available commercially in the early 1990s when one of the first products was brought to the market by UK-based researchers.
Details of the latest machines were revealed by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper which reported that when a subject breathed into the humanoid robot, Kaori’s mouth, its responses ranged from “it smells like citrus” to “there’s an emergency taking place that’s beyond the limit of my patience.”
The dog robot, called Shuntaro, nods its head while analysing the smell of a user’s feet. If the odour was not too strong it nestled up to the subject and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony played out of its speakers.
If the feet smelt stronger, it made a growling sound and if they reeked it appeared to collapse and pass out.
The robots have gas sensors that create a chemical fingerprint for matching with specific odours. Embedded computers process the data which in turn control the responses of the machine.
According to CrazyLabo chief executive, he was inspired to build the machines in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which struck the Tohoku region on 11 March, 2011.
Though Tsutsumi, 47, lived far from the disaster-hit region, he had to repeatedly visit the area on business and felt he had to do something.
He told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that he was left speechless after viewing the post-quake wreckage as he drove across northeastern Japan two months after the tragedy.
That was when was inspired with the idea of making a robot that could make people smile and laugh again.
His bad breath and smelly feet had been the subject of constant complaints by his family which led to the development of Kaori-chan and Shuntaro-kun following his meeting with Takashi Takimoto, a mechanical engineering associate professor at the Kitakyushu National College of Technology.
Takimoto, 32, and his students developed computer programmes and collected samples of odours to develop. They also roped in students who measured levels of odours using socks they had worn for two days, and also ate various foods with characteristic smells, such as garlic.
The project which took a few month for completion ended in February with the development of the two robots.
