Abstract: An odorant mixture is disclosed. The odorant mixture comprises N odorant components wherein N equals at least 20. Each odorant component is characterized by a multidimensional vector of attributes. A z score of an average of characteristic distances between vectors corresponding to odorant components in the mixture and vectors corresponding to odorant components in a group of M odorant components but not in the mixture is less than 2.

Abstract: An odorant mixture is disclosed. The odorant mixture comprises N odorant components wherein N equals at least 20. Each odorant component is characterized by a multidimensional vector of attributes. A z score of an average of characteristic distances between vectors corresponding to odorant components in the mixture and vectors corresponding to odorant components in a group of M odorant components but not in the mixture is less than 2.

Abstract: An odorant mixture is disclosed. The odorant mixture comprises N odorant components wherein N equals at least 20. Each odorant component is characterized by a multidimensional vector of attributes. A z score of an average of characteristic distances between vectors corresponding to odorant components in the mixture and vectors corresponding to odorant components in a group of M odorant components but not in the mixture is less than 2.

Abstract: A method for comparing odors comprises: sampling odor sources and detecting primary odorants, then for each odor source, storing each of the sampled odor sources in respective primary vectors of odor descriptors that describe the primary odorants. For each source a source vector is then constructed by summing the primary vectors of the respectively detected primary odorants. Comparison between the odors is achieved by determining an angle between the source vectors, which may then be output. The method may be used in electronic noses and like equipment.

Abstract: An odorant mixture is disclosed. The odorant mixture comprises N odorant components wherein N equals at least 20. Each odorant component is characterized by a multidimensional vector of attributes. A z score of an average of characteristic distances between vectors corresponding to odorant components in the mixture and vectors corresponding to odorant components in a group of M odorant components but not in the mixture is less than 2.