Slashdot Mirror
Brits Still Working on Stinky Email
prostoalex writes "British Internet provider Telewest Broadband is testing a system, which allows people to attach specific smells to their e-mail. It works with air freshener cartridge that one plugs into PC. The technology is developed by a US-based company Trisenx, which features the products and pricing on its Web site. A 20-channel serial port device costs $269, the same price for optional software package allowing the user to author specific smells. The replacement cartridges are $48 each." They're hardly the first attempt at adding smell to the computer experience. Digiscent didn't work out so well.
think what the porn industry could do with this?
Personally, I don't want to know what sort of smell would be associated with penis enlargement spam...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
What smell would you send to Darl?
Je blague, mes amis...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Just what I want when I receive an email from rms is to *smell* him too.
This technology would be more useful in France.
Part of the beauty of email is that I don't _have_ to smell someone to communicate with them. Being as I work in software development, this is a big plus.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
And no expensive cartridges to replace. Anyone up for Broccoli and Egg Salad?
Porn Spam would have a very specific smell to it. If you could do the same thing with web pages, a lot of people would get in trouble when the wife went sniffing around the computer.
If we could do this with packet level traffic it would give a whole new meaning to a network sniff (Yes sir, I suspected the router because it smelled like the homeless man outside your building.)
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
Hmm... send that fresh bakery smell to your Atkins buddies.
Given the amount of time I spend trudging around in the sewers in your average 3D shooter, I think I'll pass on this technology. At least until Doom4: Field of Flowers is released.
I read the internet for the articles.
...just like chicken.
Great, as if your idiot uncle wasn't bad enough at family get-togethers, you can now look forward to emails that read:
Pull my finger
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
sex smells!
Now They don't have to eat horribly for days on end to create "the worlds worst smelling fart" they are just one email away.
btw, this is meant to be a funny....
How about sending your loved ones a quick hit of LSD, or a tab of e, or maybe the scent of pot for a nice 'contact high' ? The new Drug Dome comes with 20 lab-quality chemical compounds which can be combined to form 60 separate drugs. Co-worker feeling a little anxious about a presentation? Email him a quaalude. Girlfriend not putting out? Send her a couple of tabs of e.
For the record, rumors that the Drug Dome has been hacked to dispense a single blast of all 20 drugs at once are false.
We are currently beta-testing a refillable Drug Dome, using a modified Linux kernel (Methix), the chemicals, their mixtures, and dosages can be completely customized by the end user.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Imagine your favorite sites...
Stiny Meat project: http://www.thespark.com/science/stinkymeat/
Stinky Feet project: http://www.thespark.com/science/stinkyfeet/
What a bad idea
AR
Ok, that was mean. Good thing I have a broadband connection, or else it would have taken forever to read your comment. And did you have to use smell 06F2A5CC369B2E5857AF1320ED3D ? Do you know how many times a day I have to put up with that smell? Why oh why couldn't you have sent something nicer, like smell 305A631E0442AC742E2DEADBEEF2 ?
"Well, it would be kind of interesting to add a smell factor to first-person-shooters. "Look out, I smell bad guys", or "I think there's some food over that way."
"Frrrpbpbpbp... DAMN! I just gave my position away!"
"Derp de derp."
I've got this device that makes smells, which will interoperate well with the 3D VRML interweb. The only trick with this thing is reaching critical mass of eyeballs - no, scratch that, noseholes - so we'll have to give them out for free, and eat the GBP250 ($464 - yes, you read that right, that's what this thing costs - can you believe it's so cheap!) How, you ask. Simple. We'll get advertisers to pay for it! Quote: "Telewest say it could be used by supermarkets to tempt people with the smell of fresh bread or by holiday companies seeking to stir up images of sun-kissed beaches.
I forsee no problems whatsoever.
...and I'll bet that somebody's already working on an Emacs syntax highlighting mode that produces different smells based on C types.
Mmmmmmm, unsigned ints....
Maybe using string functions without bounds checking could smell really bad. Then you could really sniff out the bugs. Neat!
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
Just like the Colon-Cat Company, let them burn through their cash giving away this garbage for free, then pick 'em up by the bushel in about 18 months.
Yeah, right.
We can just hope that this doesn't show up in the next upgraded version of goatse.cx.
Smell could add a lot to certain games, especially simulators. For instance when your transmission or differentials get thrashed in a rally racing game, you could start smelling burning oil. It does not need to occur rapidly and it will be a persistent smell (until the next repair opportunity.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
...just glue a slice of spam to your nose and be done with it.
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
When will you idiots learn to stop giving Raph Koster and the rest of Sony Online Entertainment any more ideas for Star Wars Galaxies: "Terrain Engine and Chat Client" MMORPG game design?
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.