Get a whiff of XML Smell
By Ryan Block 
posted January 25th 2005 11:36AM
posted January 25th 2005 11:36AM
John Waters, eat your heart out. A very bored researcher at Huelva U. in Spain has birthed for the world XML Smell,
a protocol for the well-formed transmission of smells by any medium at hand, be it email, TV, or SMS. Of course, we
don't yet have a device that simulates such smell transmissions (nor are we sure we really want one), but we can't wait
for the day when this is a reality:
To: Pete
From: Ryan
Subject: BO
Body:
<?xml smell version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Smell name="BO" last shower="3 days ago">
<Composition>
<Scent intensity="40%">armpit</Scent>
<Scent intensity="14%">halitosis</Scent>
</Composition>
</Smell>
Scent sent.
Hmmm, add a whole new dimension to the idea of spam piling up. Whew!
The new plauge -popup olfactory advertising!
I remember an article that Wired Magazine did in 1999 about a company called Digiscent. They made a prototype device that hooks up via USB. Don't know if anything ever came of it though. Heres the link to the article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/digiscent.html
you xml is invalid. i know, nobody cares, but i couldn't help noticing.
Universidad de Huelva, or Huelva University, not Heulva.
I saw Digiscent at various Internet related shows in the late 90's. They showed prototypes of a product that used a bunch of scent cartridges and then mixed them and squirted them out. (Very much like a color printer).
I don't believe they every shipped - but they did have working prototypes.
Regardless, that's one Heluva budget to pour research dollars into that project.
I recall Digiscent working with websites provided my the manufacturer which triggered the device to make coffee smells when you visited their coffee site. This would be great if it could be incorporated into cell phones and other devices that have user identification since our sense of smell triggers our memory.
Hey
Forget the past live in future,find out DIGITAL SMELLS ,is available online to buy one for yourself.
Visit ww.trisenx.com and www.savproducts.com to find out more ,its no more a virtual reeality.
Alex.