ANN Based Approach to Integrate Smell Sense in Multimedia Systems

Despite the wide usage of multimedia in several applications, research in the field of olfaction is immature in helping humans work and communicate through multi-sensory interfaces, including smell. There is no consistent method of testing user capability of smell. Therefore, smell detection and generation systems are not well integrated into today’s multimedia systems. In this paper, the authors propose an odor sensing system with the capability of the discrimination among closely similar 20 different odor patterns and propose an on-line classification method using a handheld odor meter (OMX-GR sensor) and neural network that can be used in different multimedia applications. The proposed system is integrated to enhance the functionality of an online multimedia shopping system that is capable of selling products with visual and auditory senses.