We’ve reported earlier on an electronic nose. Now, there is a new and improved electronic tongue, which could sample food and drinks as a quality check before they hit store shelves. Or it could someday monitor water for pollutants or test blood for signs of disease, as reported at Newswise. With an eye toward these applications, scientists S. V. Litvinenko and colleagues are reporting the development of a new, inexpensive and highly sensitive version of such a device in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The scientists work at the Institute of High Technologies at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Sensors in the tongue detect substances in a sample and send signals to a computer for processing. The scientists note that the food and beverage industry and others have started deploying electronic tongues for a range of purposes from authenticating Thai food to measuring beer quality. But existing devices are limited in how they can be used. Litvinenko’s team decided to make an improved instrument that could have applications in medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical testing, and environmental monitoring, as well as food testing.
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