Flexitral Inc., MIT to Create the “Real Nose”

 

Flexitral Inc. (Chantilly, Virginia) will provide a principal investigator, founder Luca Turin, to the MITRealNose project funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). According to DARPA, “The key to the program concept is that by simulating the entire mammalian olfactory system (from air intake to pattern recognition), revolutionary detection capabilities will be created. The primary goal is to create a more advanced model of the e-nose, one that can detect specific substances at increased distances and with higher accuracy (essentially, to be as reliable as a dog).” The program will utilize Turin’s well-publicized “vibration” theory of olfaction.