Plant Scent-Based Production Information Traceability System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods fail to effectively and safely present production information directly from plants, such as fresh food products, due to difficulties in incorporating scented substances during the growing process and ensuring product safety.
Innovation Solution
An information providing system comprising a scent imparting apparatus that adds a scented substance to a plant, a scent detecting apparatus that identifies the substance or its metabolites released, and an information management apparatus that associates and presents the production information, allowing for the direct identification and display of the plant's production details.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a scented substance is added to a plant to enable direct identification, then production information can be presented directly from the plant, but the complexity of the system increases due to the need for scent imparting apparatus, scent detecting apparatus, and information management apparatus
Solution Approach 1:
A scented substance is introduced as an intermediary carrier between the plant and the detection system. The scented substance is added to the plant during growth, and its presence (or metabolites) is later detected to identify production information, enabling indirect but reliable traceability without direct electronic tagging of the plant
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical/electronic labeling systems (such as barcodes, RFID tags, or physical labels attached to plants) with a chemical-based identification system using scented substances. This substitution reduces the complexity of mechanical attachment and reading mechanisms while enabling direct integration with the plant itself
2Loss of information
If scented substances are added during the growing process, then production information can be directly associated with the plant, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The scented substance is added to the plant during the growing process (preliminary action) rather than after harvest. This preliminary impregnation ensures that the scented substance becomes an integral part of the plant's structure, making subsequent detection straightforward and ensuring information traceability from the source without adding steps during later processing or packaging stages
3Ease of operation
If existing labeling methods are used, then production information can be provided, but the plant cannot present its own information directly and the process is indirect
Solution Approach 1:
The plant serves itself by naturally releasing or retaining the scented substance that carries its production information. Instead of requiring external labels or tags that must be manually attached and read, the plant's own biological processes (growth, metabolism) work with the scented substance to enable direct self-identification, eliminating the need for separate labeling operations
Data Source
AI summary
A scent imparting apparatus transmits to an information management apparatus, product information that includes added-substance information indicating a first substance that is a scented substance added to a plant and production information regarding the plant. The information management apparatus stores the received product information in a production information storage unit. A scent detecting apparatus detects a second substance that is at least one of the scented substance or a metabolite of the scented substance released from a target plant, and transmits detected-substance information indicating the second substance to the information management apparatus. The information management apparatus transmits to the scent detecting apparatus, in a case where the second substance indicated by the received detected-substance information is the same as the first substance indicated by the added-substance information included in the product information stored in the production information storage unit or is the same as a metabolite of the first substance, the production information included in the product information stored in the production information storage unit. The scent detecting apparatus presents the received production information.