nose

Hold your nostrils! And behold the olfactory search engine called Google Nose.

The service lets you type in keywords for smells like "lemon" or "new car." It's being billed as an "Internet sommelier" with an "Aromabase" of over 15 million "scentibytes."

"Street Sense vehicles have inhaled and indexed millions of atmospheric miles," the Google Nose page says.

"Android Ambient Odor Detection collects smells via the world's most sensible mobile operating system."

"Don't ask, don't smell: For when you're wary of your query--SafeSearch included." … Read more

Last year, a scientist cracked the mystery of how Santa Claus manages his gift-delivery feats using futuristic technology. This year, dedicated scientists have finally revealed an explanation for how Rudolph, Santa's lead reindeer, got his red nose.

If you recall the legend, Rudolph was a bit of an outcast thanks to his bright and shiny red nose. All of the other reindeer might not laugh and call him names if they knew his nose was really the result of an issue with the microvascular flow in his nasal mucosa.

A collection of Dutch scientists contributed to a paper titled "Microcirculatory investigations of nasal mucosa in reindeer Rangifer tarandus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae): Rudolph's nose was overheated." … Read more

After spending eight years developing a tiny sensor that can sniff out a variety of airborne substances, a chemical engineering professor is working with a company to bring the resulting prototype -- a so-called "electronic nose" -- to market.

The tech could be used in a wide range of settings, including industrial sites to detect gas leaks, agriculture to detect pesticide levels, and the military to detect chemical warfare agents.

Developed by Nano Engineered Applications, the prototype includes a computer chip, USB ports, and temperature and humidity sensors and is just the first in a series of similar … Read more

A good nose can be a curse. Dogs, for instance, have been shown to be able to sniff out lung cancer in humans, which means the poor creatures have to smell our breath, with a lot of smokers in the mix, one sample at a time.

Good news out of Germany, then, for man's best friend. A team of scientists at the University Hospital Jena is testing an electronic nose system that's able to distinguish between people without heart failure and people with it, and even between two types of heart failure (compensated and decompensated) with almost 90 percent accuracy--higher than what canines were able to achieve in the lung cancer study.

The system includes three thick-film metal oxide-based gas sensors with heater elements. Each is tailored to sense different odorant molecular types. As oxygen reacts to the heated sensor surface, the molecules interact with the sensors and change the free charge carrier concentrations, and thus conductivity, in the metal oxide layer.… Read more

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he's equipped with the latest in satellite-based technology to get you your toys on time (and in one piece).

So says the Federal Aviation Administration, which announced this week that its safety inspectors had certified St. Nick's sleigh, Santa One, for its annual chimney-chasing trek around the globe.

"Children around the world will get their gifts on time, regardless of the weather, thanks to NextGen," a new air traffic control technology, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "We're proud to say NextGen … Read more

Somehow we packed a conference room with more people than we had chairs for here at South by Southwest. Special guests Caroline McCarthy, Wine Library TV's Gary Vaynerchuk, and The Onion's Baratunde Thurston join us for today's show.

The Web turns 20 http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10195512-60.html

It’s Red Nose Day http://www.rednoseday.com/

Apple ready for third generation of iPhone- Demo 3/17 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10195098-37.html

iTunes 8.1 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10194549-37.html

iPod Touch explodes, sets kids’ pants on … Read more

The remote-controlled rocket phone may yet to become a reality, but in the meantime we can all amuse ourselves with another airborne gadget: a flying video camera. And it's just in time for football season--we can just see these projectiles knocking out those wimpy floating field cameras in midflight.

It may look like an ordinary toy rocket, but the remote-controlled mini-craft houses a digital camera in its nose cone that's "impact-resistant" (good thinking) and can capture images from an altitude of 500 feet. Once it lands, the video can be downloaded onto a computer through its … Read more