This smartphone app can detect scents

An Israeli company is developing a new smartphone app and a sensor which can identify and analyse scents, and help people select products best suited for them.

The sensor acts as an electronic nose and can be incorporated into smartphones, according to Oren Gavriely and Eran Rom, who co-founded the company, Nanoscent.

The sensor is made up of nanoparticles and emits different signals based on the smell it is exposed to.

The system can determine users' scent profile and help them select products, such as cosmetics, perfumes and soaps.

The technology uses the interactions between the sensor and the chemical substances emitted from our body to generate a distinct pattern, or fingerprint, for each scent.

It then uses this data to train its algorithm to identify different kinds of smells,