Smell You Now, Smell You Later
from the this-is-so-smell-2.0 dept
The sense of smell is widely known to evoke emotional memories, which is why cookie stores pump their delicous scents into malls across America. As a result, artificially re-creating smells has been tried over and over again, but to no avail. Perhaps previous attempts failed because they only addressed half of the problem. Japanese researchers have created a device that can both record and playback smells. "Point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie and it will reproduce the odour", claim the engineers. Being able to record smells yourself opens up more interesting applications beyond the novelty of just sitting next to your computer smelling websites. Although, how long before the RIAA starts cracking down on unauthorized smell-recordings of concerts?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
VA computer/data security
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Can it smell my farts?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who was it??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wendy Rtd
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
:-P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Think of....
... the children
How many poor innocent children will be needlessly humiliated by foul stenches eminating from underneath their desks at school due to this device. And let's not forget sibling rivalry... the poor parents. How long before "scent packs" come out and are downloadable over the P2P networks.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Never happen
It's bad enough these days that you visit a 'bad' website and your machine fills up with spyware, in the future you visit a bad website and your room fills up with poison gas??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Never happen
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Never happen
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Maybe
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Smellovision!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stop touchin' my odor.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
too many adds
WHOLLY SHIT!!! The smello-rama would make me barf on my monitor and I would get seriosuly mad that I would have to go to the Pepto-Bismal website to settle my stomach!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Imagine the possibilities for the lovesick or the downright stalker. Many/most people find olfactory stimuli very powerful, and smells left on clothing for example can be very arousing (usually when it is a familiar loved one of course). So with this invention not only could one have pics, video, and audio of a loved one (or stalk-ee), they could record and playback their scent too. So many possibilities...
Oh, and to the comment on poision gas, there is a difference between mimicking a smell and reproducing a toxic chemical combination. Usually it isn't the smell of a toxin that is the issue, the smell just comes along for the ride with the nasty chemicals.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]