Electric tongue coming

(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas -- UT researchers have developed an "electronic tongue" that, its makers say, will be able to analyze the composition of various liquids.

Adrian Goudy, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, holds up an example of the electronic tongue a team has been working on for several years.

"We made analogy to devices already made to mimic the nose, and we made a conscious decision to make a device to mimic the functions of the tongue," said Eric Anslyn, one of the tongue's creators. "The actual device is completed, but right now the tongue is still being tweaked."

Ultimately, the tongue will be used for the analysis of various beverages and environmental samples, such as agricultural run off, blood and urine, said Anslyn, a UT associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The tongue possibly could also be used to detect chemical warfare agents, contaminants or unsafe foods, said Dean Neikerk, a professor of electrical and computer engineering who created the tongue along with Anslyn and chemistry professors Jason Shear, John McDevitt and Andy Ellington.

"There are lots of areas where you would like to be able to detect what's in water," Anslyn said.

Anslyn added that the device could be used to detect date rape drugs, such as Rohypnol, but at this time designers are not exploring that direction.

He said the first prototype costs several thousand dollars, but the tongues should be fairly cheap if made in bulk. He said in the future each tongue may cost $20.

While it may act like a tongue, it doesn't look like one.

"It looks like a small computer chip that you can submerse into a liquid," Anslyn said.

After perfecting reproduction of the taste sensation, designers will think about commercializing the product.

"We're very proud of them doing this interdisciplinary work, their success in pursuing a patent, and getting published in the Journal of American Chemical Society and New Scientist," said Becky Rische, director of engineering communication. "That's the way research has to go now; it's so complex it requires teamwork and the ability to corroborate with others."

Neikerk compared the research to a jigsaw puzzle.

"The pieces have fallen together surprisingly well," he said. "Everybody has contributed really unique pieces to the puzzle."

Graduate students were involved in researching the tongue, a practice McDevitt thinks is successful because of the different perspectives researchers brought to the project.

"I think it has great potential," said John Lavigne, a graduate student in the department of chemistry and biochemistry who worked on the project. "The chemistry involved is fairly simple, but the pattern recognition algorithms give it more power to be a more useful tool."

McDevitt said in a statement that one of the most surprising aspects of the project has been the level of interest this technology has created in vastly different areas.

With the new technology, blood sugar, drug metabolism, and other general health states could be assessed within the doctor's office instead of at a remote laboratory.

Food and flavor industries are also looking at the technology as a means for them to more effectively identify tastants and odorant additives for their products, he said.

People in the tourism industry, as well as environmental scientists and biomedical companies have expressed interest in the tongue, McDevitt added.