"CHIPS: Electronic nose starts sniffing"

An electronic-nose technology will be demonstrated Tuesday at the Composites at Lake Louise Conference in Alberta, Canada. The electronic nose, invented by Massachusetts Institute of Technology electrical engineer mimics biology through a low-cost thin-film fabrication technique that combines the best aspects of organic and inorganic materials. By directly writing sensor films to a quartz substrate with an experimental Hewlett Packard programmable ink-jet printhead, the researchers can create arrays of smell sensors that work like a nose, but which can be calibrated to sense the aroma of noxious gases including those wafting off toxins and explosives.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202602950