Bah
Unless it can roll on its back for a tummy-rub or fetch a stick, I'm not interested.
(Yes, the one with the dog biscuits in the pocket.)
Sniffer dogs can get tired, but fibre-optic sniffer robots don't have the same problem. And they are just as good at detecting cocaine, says Tong Sun, a professor of sensor engineering at City University London. Prof Sun and her team won a £140k grant on Tuesday to work on the coke-detecting robots that they foresee will …
"Sniffer dogs can get tired." Judging by the rate my dog can sniff on an average day walk I just can't really believe that particular statement. Aside from that, it's always nice to see dogs in airports and such places. AAAAAAND "[sniffer dogs] cannot act as evidence in court"? Surely that's the cocaine's job???
Uh ... not in my world. My critters are always willing to work ... Sense of smell isn't exactly a major muscle group.
IMO, speaking as someone who works in the field with this particular subject matter, the machines are are still a couple decades behind the dawgs. Gut feeling is that mechanical sniffers will not fully match the capability of my hounds in my lifetime.
I could be wrong. It's been known to happen.
My sniffer dogs (Labs & Shepards (Alsations to you brits), mostly) will happily work 6 hours, take a break, and work for another 6. The break is for the handler, not the dog. Granted, they can't do this day after day for months on end ... but my guys worked 6 days on, one off at the World Trade Center. Ever worked with a good hunting dog? They are all go ... Training them to alert on specific scents is just re-directing this energy.
Agree on handler's mood ... Contrary to popular perception, the leash is a coms link, not a controller ... at least when dog & handler are trained properly.
The drug sniffing, animal meat and fruit dogs (3 types, not combo) in the US airports are cute, only you don't want them 'cute' to you.
If they detect their favourite scent on a passenger, they simply sit down, looking at the suspect and wagging their tale. Their large hairy human handler then takes over and 'requests' the passenger follow him.
Bet these machines won't do that.
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There has been some work on dogs sniffing out cancer and other diseases. Wouldn't it be nice if airports and tube stations had machines (or dogs) sniffing out your health problems and handing out referral cards for your GP, instead of burly coppers intimidating dope-heads. Don't 's'pose there's any money for that though.
The reason dog reactions aren't allowed as evidence is because it's been shown that the dogs actually can react to cues from their handlers -- in other words, they tend to alert on people who happen to look suspicious to the human handling them, not necessarily people actually carrying drugs. Presumably robots would be immune to this effect.
They don't know how to lie, but they also only really have one goal -- to please their handler. If giving false positives pleases their handler, they'll quickly learn to do it, even if it's not what the handler consciously intends. This may suit the handlers just fine, too, since it gives them probable cause to search anyone they don't like the looks of.