Osmo AI, a company dedicated to exploring the convergence of technology and human senses, has just achieved a fascinating breakthrough: teleporting a smell. In his laboratory, Osmo has managed to capture and replicate the essence of a coconut, and send it from one point to another without human intervention. All this thanks to a combination of artificial intelligence and a molecular formulation system. The achievement marks a milestone in what Osmo calls “Odor Teleportation,” a process that opens the door to revolutionary applications for AI in fields ranging from health to marketing.
How does this “teleportation” work? It all starts with gas analysis and mass spectrometry (GCMS), a machine that breaks down odors into their molecular components. This data becomes a kind of coordinate in Osmo’s “Smell Map,” an AI platform capable of predicting how a specific molecular combination smells. Finally, this data is translated into a “recipe” for an exact mixture of molecules that a machine recreates, replicating the smell with remarkable fidelity.
This process, while impressive, continues to be refined: difficult-to-detect molecules, such as sulfides in tropical fruits, require continuous adjustments to Osmo’s algorithms. Even so, every day its technology advances and approaches a future in which smelling from a distance will be as easy as sharing a photo or a song.
Transform air into data
This advance raises a fundamental question: What other uses can the ability to convert odors—and the air itself—into digital data have? A chance to revolutionize the way we control air quality and detect pollutants. Imagine airport security systems capable of detecting airborne pathogens, an advance that could have dramatically changed the way we confront the Covid-19 pandemic. A system like Osmo’s, tuned to identify viral or bacterial particles, might have been able to alert exposed people in real time and reduce the spread in public spaces.
But applications are not limited to laboratories or airports. This type of technology can also change industries such as personal hygiene. In the future, it would not be unreasonable to imagine a app that can analyze a person’s breath and offer a real-time analysis. Oral hygiene brands could develop portable devices that, connected to a phone, offer data on whether or not the person has exceeded the alcohol intake permitted to drive a car, for example.
The future of digital smell
As this technology advances, ethical and practical debates will arise. What does it mean to turn something as intimate as smell into manipulable data? And if we can “capture” any odor, how will we manage the privacy and ownership of this sensory data? This is just the beginning of a world where the air we breathe can be a source of information in itself, transforming everything from public safety to everyday life. It sounds crazy, but maybe future consent forms and terms and conditions will ask us for permission to use our personal scent for informational and advertising purposes.
This is a milestone that redefines how we interact with the sensory world and raises profound questions about the future of AI and its role in human life. Osmo AI has taken the first step, but the applications and questions around this technology are just beginning.
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