Medical diagnosis with electronic noses

Electronic noses are arrays of partially selective chemical sensors. These systems appeared at the end of the eighties as technological attempts to mimic some of the functions of natural olfaction. Although they were introduced as a sort of olfaction model they were soon applied to the qualitative analysis in a number of different fields disciplines such as food analysis, environmental control and industrial processes. Among these fields also medicine was considered, in particular taking into account the diagnostic role that olfaction plays in many traditional medicines. In this paper the use of electronic noses in medicine is discussed with a particular emphasis on the possible use of this technology in telemedicine.