演讲摘要：For years there has been interest in the possibility of building a reliable odor reproduction system (ORS), with its vast spectrum of applications: from e-commerce, games and video, via the food and cosmetics industry, to medical diagnosis. Such a system would enable an output device --- the whiffer --- to release an imitation of an odor read in by an input device --- the sniffer --- upon command. To realize this scheme, one must carry out deep and complex research that combines computer science and mathematics with chemistry, physics and biochemistry, and brain science with psychophysical work and human physiological experimentation. In the process, we expect a deep understanding of this least understood of our senses to emerge. I will discuss the feasibility of an ORS, and, time permitting, will also address the question (not unlike Turing’s 1950 question about artificial intelligence) of how to test the validity of a candidate ORS, in face of the impossibility of naming odors in general, and despite the fact that such systems still being far from being viable.

讲者简介：Prof. Harel is the Vice President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and has been at the Weizmann Institute of Science since 1980, serving in the past as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. He has worked in logic and computability, software and systems engineering, modeling biological systems, odor reproduction, and more. Among his books are “Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing”and “Computers Ltd.: What They?Really?Can't Do”. His?awards include the ACM Outstanding Educator Award, the Israel Prize, the ACM Software System Award and five honorary degrees. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences.