Smartphones and other technologies are taking on more and more human characteristics. Now a small San Francisco startup, Adamant Technologies, is trying to give the iPhone the sense of taste and smell.
Sam Khamis, founder and CEO of Adamant, explains that the company has developed a computer chip that works with a bunch of tiny sensors that “can take the sense of smell and taste and digitize them.”
The sense of smell that the chip will allow the iPhone to have is pretty sophisticated. While the average human nose has about 400 “sensors” that pick out different chemicals in the air and identify them, Adamant’s technology has about 2,000 sensors, which is about the same as a dog’s nose.
iPhone apps from Adamant are still about one or two years away right now, and the chips are just beginning to be mass produced in a plant in Austin, Texas. Adamant will also produce a consumer device that plugs into an iPhone that will cost $100 or less, which will then be used for different apps, including one that can let you know when your breath smells bad.
“Halitosis, or bad breath tracking, is something we’re really interested in,” Khamis said, which is something not even “your best friend will tell you.”
Khamis also has other apps planned, like realtime metabolic tracking, which would tell you exactly how many calories you’re burning at any given time. He also sees breathalyzer apps that that can monitor health conditions like diabetes or test blood alcohol levels.
Over the summer, Adamant raised $2.5 million from Khosla and is looking for even more later this year.
Image Credit: The Thrive Post
