Wasp Hound Odor-detection device
October 27, 2005 by colbert low
Filed under Announcements, Misc. Gadgets
Training wasps to smell out illegal or dangerous substances like dynamite instead of using dogs could make some people uncomfortable. Then again, I’ve never heard of pro-insect groups around that fight for their rights. Here’s a gadget that really does save life in a stinging way.
For now, scientists are concentrating on wasps. They’ve built the Wasp Hound — a $60 odor-detection device made of a small PVC tube containing five wasps.
The Wasp Hound has a fan in the top, which draws odors into the tube through a filter. If the wasps catch a whiff of whatever they’ve been trained to smell, they crowd around a hole in the filter. A web cam inside the tube is attached to a computer, which alerts the operator to the wasps’ reaction with a beep or flashing light.
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