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Practical "Smell-o-Vision" System Being Developed
cylonlover writes "Researchers have managed to create a proof of concept Smell-o-Vision device potentially capable of pumping out thousands of different odors, yet small enough to fit behind a TV. The device has 200 X-axis controllers and 100 on the Y-axis that could selectively activate each of the 10,000 possible odors stored within numerous non-flammable silicone elastomer compartments."
Sweet! Now I can not only see fat people working out in HD but I can smell them sweating too!
With all the crap that's on TV now...
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Can you seriously think of any movie where you'd want to experience every smell?
$5000/gallon refill bottles, inkjet cartridge style. While a neat idea - how do they propose to co-ordinate the speed of diffusion of the smells through the room - with fans or something? Or will it become mandatory to sit exactly X distance from your TV in order for the system to work? The device should go in the remote control you keep next to your chair/couch/bed, not behind the television on the other side of the room.
Also this has the potential to backfire tremendously. While we humans are not anywhere near as dependent on our sense of smell as other creatures, smell has played a fundamental part in evolution and is wired into a very primitive part of our brains. The reaction to smell is subjective, and smells deemed unpleasant or linked to unpleasant memories will quickly lead to people ripping these devices out and throwing them away. If you think you have trouble with epileptics and certain cartoons, wait till you have people throwing up or flying into rage fits because of smells.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
If it doesn't have a method of removing the smells, it will fail like all the others.
(You do know these things have been failing since something like the 1950s, right?)
I read the article, and it sounds like they don't have a solution for this. Heck, they even talk about using coffee beans between testing smells to act as a nasal palette cleanser. I'd guess from that little tidbit that not only have they not solved the problem, but have definitely encountered it in use and have no clue what to do.
It's an amusing gimmick, but they don't seem to have solved the problems that have plagued scent delivery systems before: odors don't evaporate that quickly. Audio and video disappear the instant you stop creating them, but odors linger. That's a problem of the room, not the device.
Devices like this have been discussed hundreds of times before, and I'm not quite sure what makes this one "practical". I imagine it's some great bit of engineering that lets them carry 10,000 individual scents and deliver them quickly, and I'm sure that's a neat trick.
It might even be handy for some applications in flavor and fragrance labs: punch in a formula, get out a sample instantly rather than having to drag out all of the source materials and mix them up. That's tedious and time-consuming work, and if you have to tweak, you generally have to start over.
I do wonder if the human race is beginning to lose its capabilities of imagination...
I have and have had times when what I've been watching on a screen in front of me has been so interesting or so well filmed that I've managed to become immersed in what's going on without the need for surround sound, high definition, 3D or odours.
It might be argued that people now need these extra "enhancements" because most stuff on screen these days is such crap that there's little chance of becoming immersed in it without them.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
E) The ability to smell things on other planets. What does mars smell like?
The inside of a vacuum tube, pretty close.
Or if you "cheat" and imagine it compressed up to 1 bar, then still very much like nothing. Not much organics there, not much sulfur, its going to be like the inside of a mylar helium balloon except blander.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
One can say the same thing about books, radio, tv, tv with sound, or tv with colour.
I'm sure old timer story tellers thought that books were expensive, rare toys for people who had no one to tell stories to them.
Sig: I stole this sig.
It's stereo. After all, you've got two nostrils
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
In that same vein, now imagine all the shite reality shows, now instead of watching them for the crap programming they are you can smell how bad they are too.
OMG those Jersey Shore kids have a pong to them.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
There are people that cannot smell in stereo! What about them?!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
E) The ability to smell things on other planets. What does mars smell like?
Why does slashdot think that this sort of thing would be on all the time, an for every show?
as long as you don't make me smell Uranus.
I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Oh. What's it called now?
Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
I'd guess nobody.
The first couple times I smell something, that'll be really neat. Then my whole place starts to smell from the commercials pumping odors into my living room, accumulating there, and the residue accumulating on my TV and entertainment center. Then my carpet needs to be wet vac'd every other day.
I mean even if they've found a way to deal with all of that (I'd be surprised), I still don't see myself wanting various smells pumped into my living room. Even if I only watched 24x7 cooking shows.