News By James Plafke Nov. 17, 2013 11:02 am
Every cop can’t be assigned a drug-sniffing police canine, and our noses aren’t nearly as advanced at sniffing out nefarious odors as our adorable-but-hardworking companions’ noses. A new gadget, straight out of*Futurama, can amplify a human’s sense of smell, and target specific odors to, for example, detect illicit substances.
The gadget is called the Nasal Ranger, seemingly — impossibly — without any kind of comedic intent. The Nasal Ranger looks like a megaphone, and unlike*Futurama’s Smell-O-Scope, the Ranger is placed on top of your nose rather than jamming two thin pipes up into your nostrils. The Nasal Ranger is an olfactometer, a jumble of a word that describes a device that enhances the detection of odors. It introduces an odorous baseline gas against to which the offending odor can be compared, in order to determine intensity. Because different users will have different “sniff rates,” the Ranger also comes with a calibration tool to test a user’s sniff capability.
However, the Nasal Ranger isn’t quite up to the standards of the Smell-O-Scope yet, and not because it can’t sniff out a flying asteroid of garbage all the way up in space. Even though marijuana has been legalized in certain cities, like Denver, people smoking it out in the open pollutes the air with its pungent scent — as do cigarettes. So, the Nasal Ranger is mainly being used by officials to determine if, basically, someone is making the public air smell too much like pot. The fine is severe, up to $2,000, so even though marijuana has been legalized, that — plus some Nasal Rangers — should keep the level of pot-smoking down to a minimum in public.
The Nasal Ranger comes with a mask for your nose to keep the smells in, a disposable seal and cleaning wipes for the nose-mask, odor-filter cartridges, a dial that lets you change the measurement capabilities of the device, as well as a kit that measures a user’s sense of smell.
It’s no Smell-O-Scope, but it’s at least an efficient way to see how polluted the surrounding air is, as well as a way to brighten up your day because it makes officials look hilarious.
Now read:*Dell has been selling Ultrabooks that smell like cat urine
More...
The gadget is called the Nasal Ranger, seemingly — impossibly — without any kind of comedic intent. The Nasal Ranger looks like a megaphone, and unlike*Futurama’s Smell-O-Scope, the Ranger is placed on top of your nose rather than jamming two thin pipes up into your nostrils. The Nasal Ranger is an olfactometer, a jumble of a word that describes a device that enhances the detection of odors. It introduces an odorous baseline gas against to which the offending odor can be compared, in order to determine intensity. Because different users will have different “sniff rates,” the Ranger also comes with a calibration tool to test a user’s sniff capability.
However, the Nasal Ranger isn’t quite up to the standards of the Smell-O-Scope yet, and not because it can’t sniff out a flying asteroid of garbage all the way up in space. Even though marijuana has been legalized in certain cities, like Denver, people smoking it out in the open pollutes the air with its pungent scent — as do cigarettes. So, the Nasal Ranger is mainly being used by officials to determine if, basically, someone is making the public air smell too much like pot. The fine is severe, up to $2,000, so even though marijuana has been legalized, that — plus some Nasal Rangers — should keep the level of pot-smoking down to a minimum in public.
The Nasal Ranger comes with a mask for your nose to keep the smells in, a disposable seal and cleaning wipes for the nose-mask, odor-filter cartridges, a dial that lets you change the measurement capabilities of the device, as well as a kit that measures a user’s sense of smell.
It’s no Smell-O-Scope, but it’s at least an efficient way to see how polluted the surrounding air is, as well as a way to brighten up your day because it makes officials look hilarious.
Now read:*Dell has been selling Ultrabooks that smell like cat urine
More...
