Researchers at Penn State have developed an electronic tongue that can detect subtle differences in liquids, from milk to soda to coffee. This remarkable technology not only enhances food safety and production, but also provides a unique window into the inner workings of artificial intelligence. Discover how this innovative tongue and its AI-powered analysis are revolutionizing the way we understand and interact with the world around us.
Superpowers of Tango: The Electronic Tongue and the taste of the future
Welcome to a world in which a single device can identify the subtlest differences in liquids, from skimmed milk to bespoke coffee blends. And that’s exactly what the Penn State researchers have created with their state-of-the-art electronic tongue. Seasoned with a powerful Artificial Neural Network, this amazing sensor can uniquely determine what has been put inside of it.
The secret of the electronic tongue lies in its unusual construction. Instead of a traditional sensor that is built to find certain chemicals, this one uses graphene-based ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) and so can detect a range of different compounds. Most importantly, by coupling this adaptable sensor to an artificial neural network trained with a large number of samples, the researchers have developed a process that can reliably determine the quality, authenticity and probable expiry date of nearly all types of liquids—from soda to fruit juices.
How the AI Decides
Yet the electronic tongue is a lot more than just telling one liquid from another. The additional research by the team indicates that results are even improved when using defined parameters for those assessments and allowing artificial intelligence (AI) systems to analyze the data produced by the sensor according to its individual process.
The researchers hope that this discovery will allow them to observe how AI decision-making processes may have been mysterious until then. Using a method called Shapley additive explanations, the researchers reconstructed how the neural network itself came to weigh different parts of the sample when making its decision.
Not only is this one an interesting scientific result, it has far-reaching implications for the developers and users of AI who can now gain insight into how these black-box systems think — and where they succeed or fail.
How Food Safety Was Revolutionized, and Much More
But could the electronic tongue eventually serve a purpose far beyond food and drink? The researchers said the technology could also go beyond food safety and be used in medical diagnostics, which would give us an unprecedented look at molecular changes taking place within biological samples to detect diseases differently.
However, the real strength of the electronic tongue’s features is its ruggedness and usability. This imperfection tolerance means the device can work more effectively in real-world situations compared with traditional sensors which require much greater precision during manufacture, according to researchers. This makes the technology not only cheaper, but also simpler to deploy across sectors as far and wide as food production to healthcare.
The researchers are pressing ahead with ever more ambitious tasks for this electronic tongue, and it seems that we’re only at the start of what’s possible with this new form of device, which could change how we interact and interpret the world around us. The electronic tongue is a fascinating example of both human genius and the relentless pursuit to challenge the boundaries of what could be with anything from making food safer to shining a light on the complex decision-making processes in artificial intelligence.
