![]() Three years into the pandemic, some of those patients have still not recovered those faculties. Why not use it to convey information about odor?Ĭostanzo’s quest became abruptly more relevant in early 2020, when many patients with a new illness called COVID-19 realized they had lost their senses of smell and taste. The implant is also about the right size for the olfactory bulb on the edge of the brain. For people with hearing loss, such implants feed information about sound to the inner ear and then to the brain. ![]() In the lab’s back room, another model shows the second half of the concept: There, the e-nose sensor transmits its signal to a small array of electrodes taken from aĬochlear implant. In the final product, the sensor won’t light up an LED but will instead send a signal to the user’s brain. It is also intended to show off the sensor, which is the same type used for commercial electronic noses, orĮ-noses. The mannequin represents someone who has lost their sense of smell to COVID-19, brain injury, or some other medical condition. The prototype is a partial demonstration of a concept that he’s been working on for decades: a neuroprosthetic for smell. ![]() “There won’t be Scotch tape on the final model,” saysĬostanzo, as he rearranges the gear in his lab at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in Richmond. An LED glows blue, and Costanzo’s phone displays the word “Windex.” Then he waves a vial of purple liquid and gets a purple light along with the message “Listerine.” Richard Costanzo stands beside a mannequin head sporting spectacles decked with electronics and holds a vial of blue liquid up to a tiny sensor.
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