Scientists develop robotic wine taster : International

New York, July 29 - Japanese scientists have developed a robotic wine taster, which they claim can correctly identify the unique organic components of 30 popular wines within 30 seconds. The robot called Wine-bot was developed by engineers from the NEC System Technologies laboratory and Mie University, both in Japan. It is about twice the size of a three-litre wine box and consists of a microcomputer and an optical sensing instrument, reported the online edition of New Scientist. Currently, fraud detection is performed through human tasting and careful analysis of a vineyard's records. Retailers and customs officials have been looking for a new machine that could identify wine fraud, speed up detection processes and reduce costs. The new machine developed by the scientists can even tell where the wine came from, the report said. For analysis, a five-millilitre sample of wine is poured into a tray in front of the machine. Light-emitting diodes then fire infrared light at the sample and the reflected light is sensed by an array of photodiodes. By identifying the wavelengths of infrared light that have been absorbed by the sample, the wine-bot is capable of distinguishing between 30 different varieties or blends of grape correctly within 30 seconds. The company promises to extend the number of wines the device can recognise before it is commercialised.