B5.2 - Evaluation of an E-Nose System for Objective Smell Assessment of Shoe/Socks Systems by Comparison with a Sensory Panel

Event
SENSOR+TEST Conferences 2009
2009-05-26 - 2009-05-28
Congress Center Nürnberg
Band
Proceedings SENSOR 2009, Volume I
Chapter
B5 - Gas Sensors
Author(s)
S. Horras, P. Reimann, A. Schuetze - Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany, A. Gallotto - Prüf- und Forschungsinstitut Pirmasens, Pirmasens, Germany, M. Mayer - Forschungsinstitut Hohenstein, Boennigheim; Germany
Pages
233 - 238
DOI
10.5162/sensor09/v1/b5.2
ISBN
978-3-9810993-4-8
Price
free

Abstract

In this paper we report on the evaluation of an E-nose system for objective evaluation of the smell of sweat in shoe/socking systems by comparison with a human sensory panel. The test system is based on temperature cycled semiconductor gas sensors to achieve good stability for field use of the system without the requirement for frequent recalibration. The ultimate goal is to provide a tool for developing improved shoe/sock systems with optimized materials.
The main approach to achieve this goal is to find a correlation between the assessment of a human sensory panel and the complex sensor response patterns of an E-nose system to appraise the smell of sweat in shoes and socks. Therefore a range of test persons wear shoes and socks under defined ambient conditions in a controlled test environment as well as during everyday use. The evaluation is done by comparison of the data measured by the E-nose system with two independent sensory panels, each consisting of six persons. The human sensory panels evaluate the smell on worn shoes and socks
and assess the intensity of the smell of sweat and the olfactory sensation/unpleasantness for each test object. The paper describes the setup of the E-nose system and presents results of a first larger field test showing the identified correlation between our system and the human assessment of the smell of sweat.

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