Japanese scientists create 'Smell-O-Vision' screen

Smells like geek spirit.

(Credit: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)

People have never been satisfied with just watching the action on a screen, they want to be immersed in it. What better way than with our powerful sense of smell? Japanese researchers from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have developed a smelling screen that puts the nose into play.

While early versions of "Smell-O-Vision" in movie theaters worked by floating odors into the air, the new screen is a bit more sophisticated. The scents can be located on specific parts of the screen. That means a person onscreen could be waving a piece of bacon around in the upper corner, and the smell would emanate from the same spot.

"The smelling screen is a new olfactory display that can generate a localized odor distribution on a two-dimensional display screen. The generated odor distribution is as if an odor source had been placed on the screen, and leads the user to perceive the odor as emanating from a specific region of the screen," reads the explanation for a demonstration of the product at the IEEE Virtual Reality conference, which took place last month.

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