New Tongue-Like Device Makes it Possible for People to Detect Different Types of Alcohol

A new device capable of distinguishing between beer variaties and their alcohol content has been created by researchers from Spain.

Scientists at the Autonomous University of Barcelona examined several brands of beer with a so-called electronic tongue, based on the human sense of taste. Lead author Manel del Valle believe that 'robots' with a sense of taste could one day replace human food tasters. Last year, they used an electronic tongue with 21 ion-sensitive polyvinyl chloride electrodes to test various store bought beers. "The concept of the electronic tongue consists in using a generic array of sensors," said Del Valle.

"In other words, with generic response to the various chemical compounds involved, which generate a varied spectrum of information with advanced tools for processing, pattern recognition and even artificial neural networks." Del Valle added: "Using more powerful tools, supervised learning and linear discriminant analysis did enable use to distinguish between the main categories of beer we studied and with a success rate of 81.9 percent."

Researchers explained the new device could only provide readings for specific type of beer it was programmed to recognize and didn't respond to those that weren't programmed into its system, an important step in validating the general data, as the tongue did not offer readings for anomalous data. They concluded that tools such as artificial tongues could provide robots with a sense of taste in the future. Something that can offer the food industry greater quality and reliability in developing products for consumption.