The Aroma of Fine Wine From Your Computer

SonomaSteve writes "Wine Spectator Magazine is reporting on a new computer accessory that could have you smelling fine Burgundy wine over the web. The prototype, called Olfacom, is being developed by France Telecom and showcased by the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB.) The technology uses 'essential oils' stored in several tanks inside the peripheral to generate aromas like hay, flowers and fruit. Will Olfacom be more successful than DigiScents? The French say, 'Mais, oui!'"

Comments

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine the applications in porn!

Actually, it would probably result in some shocking realizations for most geeks.

Uh oh!

[Phekko]

Talk about adding a whole new level to the Goatse experience!

Time and again...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have lost count of all these gadgets. Every other month, some geekish junior entrepreneur comes up with the idea to put a few oils in a box and connect them to a modified bubble-jet printer's head.

First: How should this ever really work? There are millions of scents out there and our noses are really sensitive organs. How should five or ten different oils be able to reproduce all the variations? Remember, we are not talking of different frequencies of one single quality (as with light) but of really different substances. One cannot mix scents as on mixes colors.

Second: Even given it would work: Does anyone want such a thingy? Just wait till the first script kid out there writes a worm that fills half of the world's office cubicles with the nice smell of, [insert your favorite salacity here].

Re:Time and again...

[Sycraft-fu]

Smell is based on shape. The shape of the molecule seems to be what determines how it smells. Thus it's hard to achieve a small just through mixing. Further, your idea kind of contradicts itself. You note that we can create synthetic smells and tastes, yet then think this can be applied to something like fine wine. Well one thing you'll notice with the synthetics is that they aren't the real thing. They may resemble it to some degree, but they are quite far off. Eat a strawberry candy, then a real strawberry and tell me that they are the same thing.

For something like fine wine, where the smell is subitle and complex, it would totally fall flat. I mean that's what really makes fine alcohol fine. Wine smells and tastes like wine, be it jug wine or $300/bottle. However the finer vintages are more mellow, and have unique flavours and smells. Getting a synthetic to simulate something like the basic wine taste is probably no problem. Getting it to be like Opus One or Domaine de Chevalier is a whole different story.

Vapor

[BodyCount07]

This has to be one of the longest running pieces of vaporware around. I've had to have ssen various articles about this type of technology for at least 5 years, with no products in sight.

Re:Vapor

[zcat_NZ]

What's most amusing about it; even if it gets to market, it will STILL be 'vaporware' :)

Now EVERYONE on the internet knows...

[neglige]

...if you're a dog.

Seriously, though...

[blorg]

...Smell-O-Vision *was* a short-lived movie fad in 1960. During the 50s in particular the movie industry tried lots of gimmicks (e.g. 3D) to counter the rising popularity of TV. The only one that really took hold (unfortunately in the view of many directors) was widescreen. One would think that all the people pursuing computer smell attachments would have learned from that experience.

Alert: A new kind of DoS attack - H2S

[GEvo]

[Munich] A teenager comes up with a new kind of distributed DoS attack - H2S after .

H2S virus/ worm targets vulnerable WINDOWS machines on the internet and causing the infected machines to reboot and releasing a small does H2S (a large dose of it will desensitize your olfactory) whenever the machine is connected to the internet.

Oh, it smells ...

sounds like one of those bad future predictions

[t_allardyce]

Dont want to be a troll but:

No it wont be more successful

Smell add-ons are like flying cars - we can do it but no one wants it

Its not ironic, meaningful or in anyway interesting that "To a computer, the fragrance of a rose or a pine cone becomes just another group of zeros and ones"

Computer games dont need smell and hardcore gamers wont give a crap

No one will agree on a standard

People wont buy one just to take a wine tour especially when it cant even do the bloody wine smell!