Gas Sampling Device

摘要

This document describes a gas sampling device. The gas sampling device is capable of housing sensors printed on thin film (e.g., paper) and is operable to expose the sensors printed on the thin film to air for a brief period of time to sample the air for smells. The exposure causes a chemical reaction between the sensors and the sampled air and differs depending on the smells of the sampled air. After exposure, an image of the reacted sensor is captured. The image is analyzed according to image processing techniques to recognize the smells of the sampled air. The gas sampling device is also capable of concurrently sampling air from a surrounding environment along with sampling air from a specimen of interest. By analyzing both samples, the smells of the specimen of interest can be distinguished from those of the surrounding environment. Once the smells are ascertained, a profile of chemical groups in gases of the sampled air is output.

主权项

1. A method for ascertaining smells from air samples, the method comprising:
exposing a sensing portion of a gas sampling sensor within an optoelectronic nose, the sensing portion reacting chemically when exposed to air samples; positioning the sensing portion of the gas sampling sensor in a chamber of the optoelectronic nose for exposure to one or more air samples; obtaining the one or more air samples in the chamber through one or more airways of the optoelectronic nose to expose the sensing portion of the gas sampling sensor to the one or more air samples; after an exposure time that allows chemical reactions to occur between the sensing portion and the one or more air samples, capturing one or more images of the sensing portion that is exposed to the one or more air samples; applying one or more image processing techniques to the one or more images to ascertain the smells of the one or more air samples; and outputting an indication of the ascertained smells.