Robots do seem to be in the spotlight lately, and in this case, scientists from Spain have come up with a robotic “tongue” that is able to identify the difference between various types of beer. This particular robotic tongue is already nearly 82 percent accurate whenever it takes a swig of various brews. Drawing inspiration from nature as usual, the scientists have decided to make this robotic tongue feature 21 ion-selective electrodes to base it on the same way which we taste. This would function as a sensor array, where each of the 21 ion-selective electrodes would be able to play a role in determining the different levels of particular elements that are present in each beer.
Of course, it will require the supervision of humans to make sure that the robot tongue learns accordingly, and the researchers were successful in coaxing their electronic sensory organ to pick up the subtle differences in the taste of different categories of beer. So far, the robotic tongue knows its Schwarzbier, lager, double malt, Pilsen, Alsatian and low-alcohol beers by taste. Needless to say, its “taste” will have to be learned before correct identification can happen. I suppose it would be a whole lot more complex issue altogether if one were to have it identify wine instead. [Press Release]
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