It would be my opinion, off the top of my head, that this approach would not be useful in a "mass surveillance" context. Many of the volotiles under study would be abundant in ambient air pollution or even in clear country air; that they have diagnostic significance is tied to the context of a direct breath test, for example.
So, I can imagine a mass-surveillance apparatus attempting to detect ketones as part of a system that detects diabetics or drunkards, but where a simple breeze is enough to mask a potential match, and a rotting piece of fruit discarded on the subway floor is enough to swamp the sensors for hours. Smell is all about context, and it's the sort of context I am doubtful could be made useful in a computerised fashion for mass surveillance. Quite unlike, for example, sound, vision or even smell, which are far more easily localisable and distinguishable. On 10/06/14 08:21, Matej Kovacic wrote: > Hi, > >> be expected to vary depending on his recent diet, or perhaps whether he >> has been ill recently. I have heard occasional references to the idea >> of diagnosing people of various illnesses based on the presence of >> minute amounts of chemicals in breath (a neat idea, BTW). > > There is some serious research about this: > > - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i-Rx-Nsf3E > > - http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v103/n4/full/6605810a.html > > - > http://pubget.com/paper/18594325/analysis-of-volatile-organic-compounds-in-the-exhaled-breath-for-the-diagnosis-of-lung-cancer > > - http://www.jthoracdis.com/article/view/1560/html > > A little older research: > - > http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/02/28/breath-odor-can-be-key-to-detecting-cancer/ > > - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3682722.stm > > - > http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2011/01/17/gut.2010.218305.short?q=w_gut_ahead_tab > > P. S: If anyone has any recent information about this (especially > clinical tests), please let me know. It is an area which is of a great > interest to me. > > Regards, > > Matej > -- T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA P: +353876363185 W: http://indiebiotech.com
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