Lessons from the olfactory system applied to chemical sensing

Summary form only given. Coherent imaging fibers have been employed to make fiber-optic chemical sensors. Optical sensors have been created based on principles derived from the olfactory system. A cross-reactive array of sensors is prepared such that specificity is distributed across the array's entire reactivity pattern rather than contained in a single recognition element. This approach has been demonstrated with a vapor-sensing device that is designed as an array of optically-based chemosensors providing input to a computational pattern recognition system. This "artificial nose" maintains all the advantages of fiber optics (e.g. remote sensing, small). The ability to use such information-rich assemblies for broad-based sensing will be discussed.