Exploring the Less-Traveled Paths of AI: Olfaction and Tactile Technologies

Hello LinkedIn Community,

Lately, I've been pondering AI's journey, especially how it mirrors our human senses. Generally, when we think about human senses, we refer to vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. We've witnessed remarkable advancements in AI's ability to 'see' and 'hear,' particularly through significant developments in vision and language models using deep learning and transformer models. The progress in 2023 alone has been astounding. But what about 'smelling,' 'tasting,' and 'touching'? Let's delve into these less-explored territories.

AI advancements have predominantly focused on vision and hearing. However, the progress in olfaction (smell and taste) and tactile (touch) technology is noticeably trailing. A quick look at Google Trends shows how 'computer vision', 'voice recognition', and language models dominate AI discussions. Yet, searches related to AI in olfaction and tactile technology are considerably fewer. This observation aligns with our firsthand experiences, sparking thoughts about the untapped potential and challenges in these areas. Let's broaden our perspective and explore AI's full sensory spectrum — there's so much more to AI than just sight and sound!

In sectors like chemical manufacturing, sensory devices such as gas and liquid analyzers, and temperature and pressure sensors are common. These devices are essentially the industrial counterparts to our senses of smell, taste, and touch. However, AI integration in these areas isn't as advanced as it is in consumer-centric applications of visual and audio processing.

While many companies are still trying to implement computer vision devices for process monitoring, safety, and environmental protection, chemical plants have spent decades investing in instruments for 'smelling' (gas analysis), 'tasting' (liquid analysis), and 'touching' (pressure/temperature sensing). This disparity reveals significant opportunities for growth and innovation. There's enormous potential for AI applications in these less-focused sensory areas, particularly in industrial contexts. The hardware is already in place, churning out vast amounts of data every second. We need more innovators with interdisciplinary expertise in physical and chemical principles and data analytics to extract valuable insights from this wealth of information.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of any organization I am affiliated with.

Several interesting google trend comparisons and tech companies:

[1] artificial taste, artificial smell, Electronic tongue, electronic nose, machine olfaction - Explore - Google Trends

[2] computer vision, language model, voice recognition, electronic nose, artificial intelligence - Explore - Google Trend s

#ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #OlfactionAI #TactileAI #ProcessAnalytics #Industry4_0 #ChemicalEngineering #DeepLearning #TechTrends #DigitalTransformation