Oct. 21, 2014 | By Alec
Who hasn't seen them at airports? Sniffing dogs have such brilliant noses that they can smell just about anything from seemingly miles away. It's no wonder they're being used at airports all over the world to sniff out drug smugglers and potential terrorists, while various military forces also gratefully use their services.
Now what does 3D printing have to do with any of that? Well, yesterday the US defense news website defenseone reported that the US government has purchased a $228,977 3D printer to produce objects replicating the dogs' fine sniffing abilities. The printer in question is a Connex 500, of Stratasys design, an industrial-grade high-quality 3D printer than can print objects in a variety of filaments.
While that printer alone is very special already, the objects they are seeking to produce are even more intriguing. Why and how dogs' noses? Well, as scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology revealed, dogs are precision sniffers capable of distinguishing odors from a greater distance than ordinary vacuums. This prompted research into how these worked exactly, for which a female Labrador retriever was used as a test subject.
Realizing that the shapes of dogs' noses played a vital role in their sniffing abilities, scientists have begun working on replications of their noses. This resulted in devices that can expel strong airjets away from the nostrils, just like real dogs do when exhaling. This helps them pull in new smells 'from impressive distances,' according to NIST scientist Matthew Staymates. Reportedly, dogs can even repeat this process up to five times a second.
However, dogs also have about 50 times as many olafactory receptors in their noses, which helps them gather those smells. Their brains are also far more devoted to processing all that extra data, Paul Waggoner revealed, who is a senior scientist at Auburn University's Canine Detection Research Institute. He is not, however, involved in this project directly. These skills could even be learned, he revealed. 'If you watch or look at somebody who's apprenticed to become a master wine or food taster, they begin to take on some of the same characteristics.'
In lieu of dog brains, however, government scientists are using flow visualization software to optically reveal the data of the various vapor flows that these artificial dog noses pick up on. This system has been developed by the Auburn University's Canine Detection Research Institute, and is being looked into by various security agencies.
The Stratasys printer has not yet been taken in use at the time of writing, but it has already been revealed that this costly device won't be solely used for the printing of artificial dog noses. Interestingly enough, the government originally ordered a Connex 350 – as can be seen in the purchasing statement – but Stratasys offered them a free upgrade to the Connext 500, according to NIST officials.
As for the noses, chances are low that we'll be seeing them at airports to replace those impressive but intimidating sniffer dogs. NIST scientist Staymates said that their 3D printed creations will strictly be 'research tools that we are using in a larger research program.' Their results could, however, influence vapor sampling devices in the future. But the very fact that 3D printers are capable of producing such highly advanced dogs' noses is already both amusing and very impressive.
Also check out these nose-printing timelapses:
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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