Measuring and analyzing multi-dimensional sensory information for identification purposes

A system including memory and computer codes for preprocessing information for identification or classification purposes, the system comprising:

• a code directed to acquiring a voltage reading from a sensor of a sensing device, the sensor being one of a plurality of sensors that are disposed in an array;
• a code directed to determining if the voltage is outside a baseline voltage of a predetermined range;
• and
• a code directed to rejecting the sensor of the sensing device for use in acquiring sensory information, if the voltage is outside the predetermined range.

A system for classifying or identifying one or more substances capable of producing olfactory information, the method comprising:

• a process manager;
• an input module coupled to the process manager for providing at least a first data related to one or more substances from a first node and a second data related to one or more substances from a second node to a computing device, the data being comprised of a plurality of characteristics to identify the one or more substances, wherein one or both of the first node and the second node is connected to the input module over a computer network;
• a normalizing module coupled to the process manager for normalizing at least one of the characteristics for each of the first data and the second data;
• a patterning recognition module coupled to the process manager for processing one or more of the plurality of characteristics for each of the first data and the second data in the computing device using pattern recognition to form descriptors to identify the one or more substances;
• and
• an output module coupled to the main process manager for storing the set of descriptors into a memory device coupled to the computing device, the set of descriptions being for analysis purposes of the one or more substances and performing a combined analysis based on the first data and the second data.

A method for training computing devices for classification or identification purposes for one or more substances capable of producing olfactory information, the method comprising:

• providing at least a first data related to one or more substances from a first node and a second data related to one or more substances from a second node to a computing device, the data being comprised of a plurality of characteristics to identify the one or more substances wherein the first node or the second node is connected over a computer network;
• normalizing at least one of the characteristics for each of the first data and the second data;
• correcting at least one of the characteristics for each of the first data and the second data;
• processing one or more of the plurality of characteristics for each of the first data and the second data in the computing device using pattern recognition to form descriptors to identify the one or more substances;
• and
• storing the set of descriptors into a memory device coupled to the computing device, the set of descriptions being for analysis purposes of the one or more of substances and for a combined analysis based on the first data and the second data.

A method for teaching a system used for analyzing multidimensional information for one or more substances, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of different substances from at least two nodes connected over a computer network, each of the different substances being defined by a plurality of characteristics to identify any one of the substances from the other substances, the plurality of characteristics being provided in electronic form;
• providing a plurality of processing methods, each of the processing methods being capable of processing each of the plurality of characteristics to provide an electronic fingerprint for each of the substances;
• processing each of the plurality of characteristics for each of the substances through a first processing method from the plurality of processing methods to determine a relationship between each of the substances through the plurality of characteristics of each of the substances from the first processing method;
• processing each of the plurality of characteristics for each of the substances through a second processing method to determine a relationship between each of the substances through the plurality of characteristics for each of the substances from the second processing method;
• and processing each of the plurality of characteristics for each of the substances through an nth processing method to determine a relationship between each of the substances through the plurality of characteristics from each of the substances from the nth processing method;
• comparing the relationship from the first processing method to the relationship from the second processing method to the relationship from the nth processing method to find the processing method that yields the largest signal to noise ratio to identify each of the substances;
• and
• selecting the processing method that yielded the largest signal to noise ratio, whereupon the relationships from the selected processing method provide an improved ability to distinguish between each of the substances using the selected processing method.

A method for preprocessing information for identification or classification purposes, the method comprising:

• acquiring a voltage reading from a sensor of a sensing device, the sensor being one of a plurality of sensors that are disposed in an array;
• determining if the voltage is outside of a baseline voltages of a predetermined range;
• and
• if the voltage is outside of the predetermined range, rejecting the sensor of the sensing device for use in acquiring sensory information.