Practical Applications of Smell Recordings 172
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."
Re:Advertising dollars in the making. (Score:3, Insightful)
There was an outcry here recently when an advertiser proposed modifying the advertising signs on bus stops to smell like the alcoholic drinks they were advertising.
Smell is a much more intrusive medium than sound or vision. Advertising alcohol or tobacco (if such were legal here) by smell would definitely be wrong. IMO.
Re:DigiScents?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wipe out the planet by email (Score:3, Insightful)
Non toxic
This is no surprise to you if you are over 3rd grade, and visited one single chemistry class, but here is a refresher : there are some very basic elements out there that are completely harmless until you start mixing them together
oh great i will be able to download a bunch of funky smells, or smell the rottening flash while playing doom
thanks but no thanks
Re:Advertising dollars in the making. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Smell-o-vision (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not a medical expert, but how useful could this really be? I mean, there's no question that this won't catch on with wine connoisseurs. They're a pretty picky bunch by nature; I doubt if they'd trust a machine over their refined noses. Not to mention that there's more to selecting a wine than its scent.
But medical diagnosis? Seriously? I mean, if someone is going to go to the trouble of examining a biological substance so closely that its odor can be reproduced to medically-valuable standards by a remote machine, why not just spend that time & effort doing real medical tests?
Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that the Japanese will find fantastically weird ways to use this technology, but I suspect it'll end up in a lot more video arcades than hospitals.
Can anyone else see marketing jerk off over this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Smell is recorded in whole, and only on a subconscious level. When you cuddle with your loved one, you will remember his or her scent, not consciously but on a purely emotional base. If you meet someone who uses the same fragrance, you immediately find him or her attractive, too, for the simple reason that he/she smells like the person you love.
Can anyone else see marketing go crazy over this idea? Bypass our rational filter and hit our emotions directly? I really hope you can turn that smell thingie off as soon as it becomes available for TV. Or the ads will stink even more than they already do.
Air freshener and perfume industries (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Smell-o-vision (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the sense of smell has been an invaluable medical tool for centuries. Cyanide poisoning can look like a dozen other medical emergencies, so a smart trauma doc will remember to take a smell of the patient's breath. Smells like almonds? It's cyanide. For years the smell of a wound that had gone gangrenous (but still looked okay) was how war theatre surgeons triaged out the ones who had a better chance of surviving. I've heard many anecdotes about doctors and surgeons who swear that many conditions have a specific smell attached to them. The nose may not be the *best* way for a doctor to make a diagnosis, but the best medical practitioners will use *all* of their senses to do their jobs.
(disclaimer - I am not a medical professional in any way, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. Oh, I also watch a lot of "Scrubs.")