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German Firms Patent Scented Text Messaging
praps writes "Two German companies have patented technology for sending scented text messages between mobile phones. The chip, which carries a range of around 100 pre-defined scents, has been developed by the Institute of Sensory Analysis and interactive services firm Convisual and will be on the market in one to two years. Naturally, the makers think that the chip will be used for sending pleasant odors to friends and family — vanilla, rose and Christmas cinnamon are on the list — but surely the claim to be able to send 'the smell of the beach and sunshine' is a little optimistic? SMS stink bombs cannot be far away."
How long until the first goatse.cx text troll (complete with odiferous enhancement)?
Mobile phones have been stinking for decades.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Call it "ink" or "toner" or whatever... there's going to be a refill-needing part that each phone with this tech is going to need. Instant goldmine.
My cheap Nokia already comes with a bunch of bitmap images that can be sent as SMS, flowers, hearts, smiley faces, etc. I've never actually used them, and no one has even, in many years of heavy mobile phone use, sent one to me. Obviously there's demand for sending text you've written, photos you've written, and ringtones other people want, but I just can't imagine a market for mobile smellovision.
so, can we detect it with the smelloscope?
If people can get past, can they get future? Best way to confuse a stoner
Hell, it's hard enough to find a phone nowadays which isn't trying to do 10 things badly.
My 7 year old Motorolla T720 is a really good phone in that I always have coverage in fairly rural areas, and in places where other people don't get coverage.
When I replace it, I want something which is going to continue to have good service. A camera, I don't want since my provider is going to use it as a means to gouge me as I try to download the images -- well, that and the fact that I already own four cameras. An MP3 player, I don't want. Smello-o-messaging, I sure as hell don't want.
I must say, sometimes I just shake my head at the absurdity of what people want to put into phones.
Can anyone recommend a good phone which works with Rogers service here in Canada, which doesn't cost an arm and a leg, gets good service, and doesn't have all these wiz-bang features? Because when I look, you go from the cheap-o POS phones, to the uber-expensive phones with features I consider fluff. Do they make good, single purpose phones any more?
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Just spend a summer in the Hunsruck, where the honey wagons spread the previous winter's manure collection on the fields.
Although, I have to admit, when it comes to stink, nothing beats an open sewer line in summertime Korea.
What?
I fart in your general direction!
This technology dies after the first lawsuit from someone going into anaphylactic shock due to hypersensitivity to one of the chemicals used to generate the scent from the phone of the guy in the other row at the movie theatre.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Yeah, this will really go over well. You take your phone to the bach and call somebody and they smell a generic, articifial "almost like a real yet generic" beach smell.
Uh huh.
One dimwitted company came up with this a few years ago (ten?) with the PC, now we all have internet smells enabled on our PCs. Yep.
But what do I know? I predicted that quadraphonics was a stupid idea, since a $500 quadraphonic sound system didn't sound as good as a $250 stereo system (you need twice as many of everything), yet "5.1 surround sound" eventually happened a quarter of a century later.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Krank calls just got a whole lot worse...
"Taboo, like anything else, goes in and out of style."
I wouldn't want to be the victim of stink bombs from my phone. I know a lot of people hate me LOL. I would tear out the scent chip, or the chemicals it uses for sure.
This is our May Fool joke. Who would permit stinkies to come from their own phone, let alone re-order the package that makes the smell?
I smell a marketing exercise, designed to bring attention to the technology for other purposes. I suspect the real applications would not capture the public imagination, but instead be used in the retail and advertiing sector: sponsored phones, perhaps?
Finally, something truly innovative! Finally, a patent I can heartily endorse!
Here's hoping it winds up locked in patent battles for the next 20 or so years.
Users insert nostril tubes now. This could have been the next step. But apparently this was already done way back in 1960 for the film, Scent of Mystery. I think this cell phone will last as long as the Scent of Mystery did. All 125 minutes.
Now you can have "Silent but deadly" ring tones!
My first thought was how wrong this could go with someone coming out with the 'Adult Only' version of scents.
Friend 1: Wat r u doing?
Friend 2: hehe guess *smell*
Friend 3: OMG!!1! BLUSH
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
This has to be one of the dumbest things I've read about today. No, actually I think it's THE dumbest thing I've read today, and I've been at work for three hours already. Why is this necessary?
I love the smell of the sun.
From last year:
Motorola's mobile smell-o-phone, April 2007
They should also add a cheap, clean, renewable energy source.
Nah - that's useless. Let's make it so you can text farts!
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
d00d, sc3nt txt me quik
...
wut up?
dropd m fon n da toilet, need u 2 txt me lysol
no lysol. febr33z. m gf sez i need
d00d i dont care, just dload lysol, quik
okok, hold on
sh1t, copypaste wut m fon sez "Dear TmobileVerizon Subscriber: The German RIAA has placed an embargo on all German media content on this cell number, including ScentFon modules, due to unauthorized content access via FonTorrent."
fukmi!!!
d00d, its da st00pid techno song u told me to dload last time!!!
fukmi!!!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Hundescheisse is my personal favorite scent!
It alzo prevents theft of the phone by others when users are not downwind of it.
Ahhh, the smell of canned spam.
The "smell of the beach" is dimethyl sulfide ... http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=A6B58AF1-E7F2-99DF-33107754E479BA4E
will my phone smell like Gonorrhea?
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
it can actually capture and transmit any scent.
imagine being able to call your _______ (politician, boss, ex; fill in the blank) and finally be able to truly express how you feel about them, where mere words just won't do.
>Send *fart*
>BRAAAAAP *strong smell comes from man's pants*
>"Ewww! Gross! This is the worst date ever!" *man's date leaves*
>*friends laugh*
Alternatively...
>*woman sends nasty message to man*
>*sniff sniff* "Does it smell like chicken in here?"
I can already smell the goatse links......
"Naturally, the makers think that the chip will be used for sending pleasant odors to friends and family"
I've got bad news for them...
Is the iSmell far behind?
it will be the first and only way they will ever smell the scent of PU55Y!
Give the slashdot regulars even more reason not to bathe. Now they'll just have their mom's text them instead.
just stinks.
I believe, I'm 99% certain at any rate, that they tried this idea with movies in the past and they failed because they... Well... They stunk. Meaning that the scents just piled on and added too each other so that there weren't any real "normal" scents any more but rather just a giant pile of stink. Sort of like trying to use all the crayons and ending up with a mess. I rooted for a link but I can't recall the name of the movie.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISmell
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
"Please sniff your cell phone, then choose the correct answer from the following list: (a) cinnamon; (b) roses; (c) french fries; (d) fart; (e) toe jam. If you have a cold or other scent-challenging medical condition, click here to hear an audio version of your sound."
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
"omg hu ct 1?"
"he hu smlt it dlt it"
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Does this mean that scented ring tones will be next? I guess instead of vibrate we can just set the phone to silent but deadly.
I've read TFA, but I'm confused about what actually got patented. It would make more sense if the patent was related to the chip they're developing as opposed to the use of the chip in a mobile phone. In the former case, the possible applications are extremely broad. Think online games and virtual reality. Imagine playing WoW and having scents recreated for you by a chip in your computer as you wander the landscape.
However, from TFA, it sounds like the patent is more narrow than this. That is, it's specifically about sending the scent in a mobile phone. To me, this seems absurd -- why narrow your patent to one application, when your technology is applicable in many other places? Besides this, when you send a scent, all the phone is doing is sending a representation of the scent (i.e., a command) to the receiver. Such an obvious mechanism seems hardly worth patenting.
Enough said.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Hopefully they'll charge exorbitant licencing fees for this patent, protecting us from the stench of Smelly Message Service for another 17 years.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
So, how long will it take apple to add this to the iPhone? Apple users should like it as long as it can do the smell of astroglide and semen.
Hey, I smell sex and candy!
Never argue with a man carrying a water buffalo
This could definitely lead to some interesting implications for people cybering.
What does a patent smell like, anyway?
'The Beach'!! i wonder if Kramer will sue?
Heh. :-)
This is really nothing new. Mattel tried to provide an enhancement to their game consoles back in the 80s. They called it:
Insmellivision.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
First Shipaturd, now this? Damn Democrats.
Along a similar line of thinking, would somebody tag this story with "BrownNote"?
That is the most useless crap I have ever heard of, I can't believe they spent research money on that, its gotta have a back door kill recipient scent or something. Well I am probably biased as I have turned off messaging on my service because I don't want them popping up and annoying me. I find that if its important they will take time to make a voice call.
My favorite game was Smelltopia, they really did a fantastic job of recreating the smell of a rainstorm....and the burning building/gunpowder smell when the rebels would appear was amazing.
Does this ruin my chances to beat Prof. Farnsworth to create the first smelloscope by a thousand years?
We have flickr for sharing photos, youtube for sharing video, imeem for sharing music I should get in early and register youaroma.com
The answer was sitting under your nose the whole time...
I was really excited about DigiScent's iSmell product (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismell) that never seemed to gain momemtum.
You have scent cartriges (kind of like print cartridges) and the unit can generate smells. Neat idea.
... wouldn't it be more likely to find such chip technology in room oder fighting plugins (to the wall socket)?
a 16 year old girl...
They already send photos of their vaginas, why not smell too?
*send*
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Will all phones come pre-loaded with a spam scent? I already get enough text message spam as it is but now I'm going to get... SCENTED text message spam? The scent cartridges would have to be refilled constantly in order to be remotely useful. Uh, I think I'll pass on this one. :p
We'll make great pets
Jesus Christ. If this tech actually gets implemented - which I sincerely hope never happens - I'd hate to be in a classroom or a commuter train/bus when SMS msgs arrive. Imagine the stench of 100 commingled scents.
No doubt this will soon follow. Cup o' tea gov'nor Entry #4.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I thought the German courts took a very dim view of scentology . . . .
Vista stinks.
Have gnu, will travel.
Well, _if_ it got implemented, I'd bet it would be in an instant. I'm not sure it will see the light of day.
See, the first time I saw this idea was in the late 90's, almost a decade ago. That time as a computer peripheral and IIRC also mentioned games as applications Turns out that almost noone was looking forward to buying it. Complete with comments along the lines of yours. Plus along the lines of, "egads, I'm not going in the sewers in RPGs any more, then." Or, "I guess it's time to give up on fishing games." Etc.
Since then, it pops up every freakin' two years again, or occasionally even more often. It's one of those bad ideas that just refuse to die. Just when you think you've buried it at crossroads, with a stake through its chest, and a comprehensive list of the 1001 reasons it's a bad idea... along comes another clueless startup and resurrects it. And gets money from yet another clueless VC.
The thing is, it's not _hard_ to synthesise smells. The nose just has a finite number of receptors, each binding to a specific group of atoms. Each essentially has a protein which binds to such a specific piece (that's what proteins _do_), and fires up a signal when that happens. A given type of molecule can bind to one or more of those, and the "smell" is the weighted sum of what proteins bind to it. So it's not that hard to have a number of simple substances, each triggering exactly one receptor, and synthesize variable numbers of other smells from those.
So expect to see it rising from the grave again and again, as yet another dumbass stumbles upon that realization, sees that there are none on the market, and thinks that he's such a genius that he's the first man ever to figure it out.
Then it gets shot down again, spends a year or two dead, and then the cycle repeats.
Ah well...
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I can see how this will play out with the middle/high school crowd. You've got your phone in your pocket, and someone sends a fart smell to your phone. Instant embarrassment! Although it also means you can blame a real one on your smell-o-text...
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
So much fun to be had when you know your friend is in a crowded lecture hall or important meeting.
Who farted? Oh, yeah, YOU did, courtesy of me, bwahahahahahaha!!!
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Tagged "cellphones". How disappointing, Slashdot.
It's so obvious - SMELLPHONES.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
ur ma is hampstr & ur dad smell lk ldrbrries!!!
The boss's got to love it!
..."whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag?!
How is that not obvious?
I would verrrrry specifically *avoid* a phone that had this capability. My friends are ruthless, and this is just asking for trouble...
Hello Professor. I know its been some years since we've seen each other but I want to express my gratitude for that extension you didn't give me on that assignment 10 years ago. I now understand the lesson you were trying to teach me. As a token of my appreciation, I have sent this odour to express my opinion on the matter. Enjoy!