The use of humans as measurement instruments is playing an increasing role in product development and user driven innovation in many engineering industries. In particular in the food industry, Sensory and consumer data is frequently produced and applied as the basis for decision making worldwide. This calls for improved understanding on one side of the instrument itself and on the other side the modelling and empirical treatment of data. The scientific grounds for obtaining improvements within a given industry spans from experimental psychology to mathematical modelling and statistics together with specific product knowledge be it food, TVs, Hearing aids, mobile phones or what ever.
In food research data is produced and used similar to the industrial use and academic environments specifically for sensory and consumer sciences exists worldwide. The development and application of statistics and data analysis in this area is called sensometrics. Chemometrics is:
- the chemical discipline that uses mathematical, statistical and other methods employing formal logic 1) to design or select optimal measurement procedures and experiments, and 2) to provide maximum relevant chemical information by analyzing chemical data. the scientific discipline related to the development and application of intelligent mathematical and statistical methods for the treatment of large data sets.
Applications:
- Product development and optimization in the food industry Product development and optimization in high end hifi and TV industry
- Quality control in the food industry
- User driven product development
- Drug discovery
- Analysis of consumer studies
- Product testing and analysis