UK Chip-Maker Arm is Working on an AI-Powered Smart Chip That Can Tell if You Smell

UK chip-maker Arm, better known for developing the hardware that powers most smartphones, is working on a new generation of smart chips that embed artificial intelligence inside devices. One of these chips is being taught to smell. From a report: The idea is that the chips will be small and cheap enough to be built into clothing, allowing an AI to keep tabs on your BO throughout the day. Arm also wants to add the chips to food packaging to monitor freshness. The e-noses are part of a project called PlasticArmPit, in which Arm is developing smart chips made from thin sheets of plastic. Each chip will have eight different sensors and a built-in machine learning circuit. It will look like a piece of cling-film with bits stuck to it, says James Myers at Arm. 'PlasticArmPit will be the first application of machine learning in plastic electronics.'

Smells are made up of different combinations and concentrations of gases. The sensors on the chip will detect different chemicals in the air and the AI will take that complex data and identify it as a particular whiff. The chip will then score the smell. If it is in the armpit of your shirt, it will tell you the strength of your body odour from 1 to 5, says Myers. 'It's the job of the machine learning to collect and interpret all the data and then alert the user if action is needed.'

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