Recent developments in the technology of odours have carried out the emergence of new devices mainly for odour monitoring. These systems were previously known as electronic noses or "e-noses", however this term in incorrect because these devices do not have a sense of smell, which is a human thing. A more correct term would be odorant sensor or o-sensor. In some cases the term "o-sensor" would be maybe too restrictive as it would exclude some other instruments for odour monitoring such as Gas Chromatograps for example.
The primary application of these instruments is to generate odour metrics that are relevant indicators for the presence and attributes of odour as would be perceived by human observers.
A benefit of instrumental odour monitoring systems is that they can be used for continuous measurement.
