Bad Breath? Ask your iPhone!

Bad Breath? Ask your iPhone!

Time and technology march on and we continually stand at the edge of new extensions of human abilities. I see a lot of possibilities from the ability of an iPhone to accurately differentiate different smells. Imagine a world where your own phone could detect the smell of fresh bread, Carbon Monoxide, or even bad breath. Taking dating to a whole new level? Perhaps!

“Now, a tiny San Francisco startup, Adamant Technologies, is trying to give your iPhone the senses of smell and taste, too. The company has created a computer chip that works with a bunch of tiny sensors that ‘can take the sense of smell and taste and digitize them,’ explains Sam Khamis, Adamant’s founder and CEO.

iPhone apps from Adamant are still some time away from being available, maybe one-to-two years. Right now, the San Francisco company, which is backed by legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, is just beginning to mass produce its chips in a plant in Austin, Texas.

Next it will produce a consumer device that plugs into an iPhone and costs $100 or less. That device will then be used with all sorts of apps, including one that can warn you when your breath smells bad.

“Halitosis, or bad breath tracking, is something we’re really interested in,” he laughs. It’s the kind of thing that not even “your best friend will tell you.” The app will not only warn you, but tell you what caused it, he says.

Other planned apps include realtime metabolic tracking, meaning telling you exactly how many calories you are burning at any given moment. He also sees breathalyzer apps that can monitor medical conditions, like diabetes, or test blood alcohol.