The Background - Artificial Human Sensors: Science and Applications - page 22

Figure 1.6. An example of the human perception.

safe to consume, however often in a late state inside the body, i.e., in the mouth.
This state of behaviour is of course a normal mode of the individual, in the
sense that the normal state is indeed fresh drinkable water. However, contami-
nated water may be mixed up with the fresh water and we have to handle that
specific situation. In Fig. 1.7, an approach is illustrated, that indicates a com-
plementary artificial sensor system that monitors the quality of drinking water.
This technique is then considered as an additional complement to the human
perception system. The individual does not need to bring the food inside its per-
sonal safety sphere or into the mouth before making the initial testing of the quality
of the drinking water. Another motivation resides in a growing ability for artifi-
cial sensing systems to exceed the human perceptual performance in accuracy and
precision in detecting contaminated water. For example, the human perception
system is not always able to detect all chemicals or micro-organisms in drinking
water by taste and smell alone. There is obviously a benefit to use an artificial sen-
sor system that can find abnormal or unsafe compounds in the water and prefer-
ably before the individual puts it into the mouth. The outcome of this ability can
be an increased interest of recognising chemical or biological compounds in the
drinking water, where the individual interacts and makes prerequisite to learn to
identify suspicious smell and taste flavours, i.e., learning to train the sensing abil-
ities. The complementary sensor system will provide a conceptual solution that is
intended to still maintain and preserve the area of individual integrity, as marked
with three red lines in Fig. 1.7.
The communication between humans and a sensor system needs to use an
interface that is easy to understand. A simple example could be a warning system
inspired by the traffic light concept. A green light as seen in Fig. 1.7 corresponds to
safe consumption and a red light indicates impurities of high concentration in the
drinking water. Additionally, a zone of uncertainty may be added, represented as