Brussels October 16, 2018. Impact Delivered Category 2nd Price for the first Universal Optoelectronic Nose developed by CEA/INAC (actually CEA/IRIG) and spinoff Aryballe Technologies.

For this category, the rewarded innovations (product or services) have social and/or economic relevance, innovative originality, are today on the market and have proven their impact.

There has long been a strong demand to digitise humans’ sense of smell, as has been achieved for our sense of hearing with the microphone and our sense of sight with cameras. While there has been some progress in creating ‘electronic noses’ capable of identifying small numbers of similar liquids or gases, universal odour detection technology remained an aspiration. CEA/IRIG/SyMMES and spinoff Aryballe Technologies have now developed the first device capable of detecting hundreds of simple and complex smells. Combining chemical sensors and an optical detection system in a miniaturised package, the NeOse device digitises detected odours and compares them to a reference database for rapid identification. This speed, together with its portability and flexibility, enables the device to open up opportunities in a wide variety of industries. As well as its ability to ensure the olfactory characteristics and conformity of products, NeOse also has a role in healthcare, safety, R&D and environmental monitoring.


Center: Yanxia Hou-Broutin, CNRS Researcher at IRIG/SyMMES. Right; Tristan Roussel, Aryballe Technologies.
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