Practical Applications of Smell Recordings

ozmanjusri writes to mention a Tokyo Institute of Technology project to record scents for later playback. The New Scientist article suggests this technology could be used in commercials and medical applications. From the article: "Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals. The device could be used to improve online shopping by allowing you to sniff foods or fragrances before you buy, to add an extra dimension to virtual reality environments and even to assist military doctors treating soldiers remotely by recreating bile, blood or urine odours that might help a diagnosis."

Comments

DigiScents??

[Nexzus]

A Company named DigiScents tried this during the boom. Shockingly enough, the company folded. From Wired, Nov. 99/a.

Re:Smell-o-vision

[jerkmark]

Smell-o-vision is right. This idea has been cropping up every few years or so since at least the 1960's, and every time they start trying to list practical applications, the concept veers off into ridiculousness. Maybe the medical uses are valid (I don't know how many diagnoses are odor-critical), but as far as online shopping is concerned, smell is simply not an important enough factor in 99% of my purchases, and I don't know how much I would trust a machine to reproduce the sublties of, say, a fine wine, or something where smell was particularly telling or vital. These cookies smell like porn.

Re:What about toxic smells?

[ozmanjusri]

Would the smell of rotting meat be more effective than a loud siren as a burglar alarm?

It is more effective in certain applications. Underground mines use Ethyl Mercaptan (stench gas) to warn workers to evacuate the mine http://www.zacon.ca/stench-gas.asp. If you've ever experienced it, you'll know there's a strong incentive to get the hell out of there.

Re:What about toxic smells?

[dargaud]

Would stores buy "smell printers" to pipe the smell of popcorn or fresh-baked bread near the high-margin retail shelves?

Smell generators have been in use for about a decade outside of some shops, mainly bakeries. Have you ever walked down a street, smelled a good freshly baked bread scent, only to walk into the bakery where the smell is mostly absent and the bread has been sitting in the shelves since the early morning, long baked ? I don't have a reference or name for those items, but they do exist, google for them. The difference is that they usually do only one specific smell.