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The Aroma Shooter Wearable blasts scents while you watch videos
Aromajoin's Aroma Shooter Wearable is a neckband that shoots up to six types of scents at your face.
Intel’s neuromorphic chip learns to ‘smell’ 10 hazardous chemicals
Of all the senses, scent is a particularly difficult one to teach AI, but that doesn't stop researchers from trying. Most recently, researchers from Intel and Cornell University trained a neuromorphic chip to learn and recognize the scents of 10 hazardous chemicals. In the future, the tech might enable "electronic noses" and robots to detect weapons, explosives, narcotics and even diseases.
Sensorwake’s olfactory alarm clock is now the 'Night and Day Diffuser'
If you've ever wished that someone would spritz pleasing smells on your face as you woke up, then it's a good day to be you. Maison Berger is launching a new version of Sensorwake's olfactory alarm clock to diffuse smells that'll help you get to sleep, and wake up again. The Night and Day Diffuser is a "multi-sensory alarm clock" that uses dry diffusion to fragrance your room 30 days in a row.
Google researchers taught an AI to recognize smells
For decades, perfumers and scientists have struggled to predict the relationship between a molecule's structure and its scent. While scientists can look at a wavelength of light and identify what color it is, when it comes to scents, scientists can't simply look at a molecule and identify its odor. Researchers from the Google Brain Team are hoping AI might change that. In a paper published on Arxiv, they explain how they're training AI to recognize smells.
On the nose
When you are a world-renowned pioneer in smells, it's somewhat inevitable you will end up sticking your face into peculiar places.
This device will literally tell you how much you stink
There's so much bad technology in the world that Japan even has a beautiful word for pointless gadgets: "chindogu." There's another splendid Japanese term, one that companies are apparently holding training sessions on how to combat: "sumeru harasumento," or in English, "smell harassment." To help keep offensively stinky people in check, Tanita is releasing a gizmo that figures out how bad your body odor is.
Moodo’s smart fragrance box adds a hint of vanilla to your home
It's no secret that not every Kickstarter or Indiegogo project becomes a reality. Often times, these ideas get crowdfunded but never turn into an actual product, but that wasn't the case for the Moodo smart air freshener. The project was funded on Indiegogo last year, and now Moodo is showing it off at CES 2018. It works exactly as advertised, letting you use your smartphone or tablet to select and activate different scents in your home, such as Orange Sunrise, Precious Spices, Grandma Vanilla and Midnight Trill.
Smart air freshener lets you select scents with your phone
Thanks to the internet of things, we have the ability to control our home's lighting and temperature at the touch of a button. But what about the smell? For that, we're left with shoving a Glade plug-in air freshener into a socket or opening a window. That's set to change with the introduction of Moodo, a SensorWake-esque device that's designed to customize your home's scent at will.
Fly like a bird with this VR-powered, scent-emitting machine
Current technology and human anatomy may prevent you from soaring like a bird in real life, but a team at the Zurich University of the Arts may just have the next best thing. Their Birdly machine lets you flap your way through the air much like the Red Kite it's modeled after. Motors translate your hand movements to the virtual avian's wings, and an Oculus Rift VR headset gives you an all-too-literal bird's eye view of the scenery -- you probably won't want to look down very often.
Scentee's smelly smartphone notifications are now available worldwide
If you were crestfallen when you heard that Scentee's fragrance-emitting smartphone add-on would be hard to get outside of Japan, you can relax -- it's now available worldwide through the company's site. The perfume plug-in sells for $35 by itself (plus a whopping $30 in shipping), while scent packs for coffee, lavender, rose, rosemary and strawberry will cost you $5 each. That's quite a lot to pay for smell-based notifications on your Android device or iPhone, but Scentee is at least more practical than some of the other novelty imports that we've seen as of late.
No Comment: Paper Passion perfume for e-booklovers
Ah, the smell of books. That musty crinkly-nose sensation that transports you to old libraries, bookstores, and cluttered offices. It produces a visceral sensation of being surrounded by knowledge and adventure, where a page turn can introduce wonders and possibilities. A whiff of the antiquarian stirs the heart of book lovers, exciting their passion for the printed word. In the age of ebooks, we have lost that old-paper smell. Electrons dance across our easily cleaned oleophobic screens, and our data fails to imprint the care of time and attention we devote through each page turn. Our iPads have lost sabi, that Japanese aesthetic that elevates appreciation of that which is old, faded, and worn. Instead, we live in a world that's slightly more sterile, and far less tactile. Enter "Paper Passion". Created by Geza Schoen, Gerhard Steidl, and Wallpaper magazine, with packaging designed jointly by Karl Lagerfeld and Steidl, the perfume offers a bouquet of "freshly printed books, the best smell in the world," according to Lagerfeld. It celebrates "all the glorious sensuality of books" (yes, apparently it refers to those kind of naughty librarians), allowing you to wear the "very chic" smell of a book. Retailing at just $115 for a small bottle, the fragrance promises to place you into a "world of luxury." "You have a book, you open it, there's a bottle inside and it smells of a book. It might be quirky, but the idea has a simplicity, a linearity." --Geza Schoen To this we say "No comment." [via iO9]
This concept wants you to smell it, smell it, Smellit
We admit it: this could just be another highfalutin gadget render that'll never breathe the polluted whiff of day. But it's a nice render, which demonstrates a concept called the Smellit: a miniature olfactory factory that's meant to connect to your PC and bring a "fourth dimension" to video and gaming. Its creator, Nuno Teixeira, even claims he's found a French company to build the device and show it off at the Lisbon Design Show next week. Now, the principle of a practically-sized scent generator has already been demonstrated by others, but we won't be convinced until we have to open a window.
Scent generator threatens to waft Odorama into the 21st century
Finally, an invention John Waters can get behind. When the harbinger of filth brought the odiferous experience to screenings of Polyester, he took the scratch-and-sniff route -- including scents like glue and feces -- now a team of researchers at the University of California in San Diego are expanding on the smell-what-you-see concept, albeit in a much more high-tech fashion. In collaboration with the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the team has developed a method for generating odors that could pack the appropriate hardware into a device "small enough to fit on the back of your TV." Basically, scents are produced by an aqueous solution, like ammonia, which is heated by a thin metal wire, and eventually expelled, as an odorous gas, from a small hole in its silicone elastomer housing -- and, bam! You've got Smell-O-Vision. The team has tested its method using perfumes by Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Taylor, but have yet to create a working prototype. For the sake of innocent noses everywhere, let's hope Mr. Waters doesn't get a whiff of this.
Fujitsu releases F-022 flip phone for women who like to smell good
Because they're brutish and sweaty, most men don't have a problem with their phone's naturally metallic musk, but "20 to 40 year-old women with a well-developed sense of fashion" apparently do. That's why Fujitsu has announced the F-022 -- a glittery flip phone designed for females who demand slightly more from their handheld's olfactory offerings. Developed in collaboration with Japanese accessory maker Folli Follie, this bejeweled little bauble comes with a "detachable fragrance chip" that allows users to mark their tech territory with the perfume of their choice. Just spray the chip with a dab of your scent, latch it on to the phone, and every conversation you have will end up smelling like roses. The F-022 goes on sale in China on June 24th, but for more information, just follow your nose to the PR, after the break. [Thanks, Jeff]
Keio University developing 'olfactory printer,' AromaRama due for a resurgence
We're not entirely sure why people keep trying to bring back Smell-O-Vision, although Keio University's success in printing scents using a modified printer gives us hope that this sort of thing might someday be somewhat feasible -- and useful. It works by using an off-the-shelf Canon printer that's been given a "scent jet," Kenichi Okada told New Scientist. "We are using the ink-jet printer's ability to eject tiny pulses of material to achieve precise control." The scent dissipates quickly, after one or two human breaths. And while specific scents can be printed, there is as of yet no way to build a general purpose device. According to the University of Glasgow's Stephen Brewster: "We don't yet know how to synthesize all the scents we want. There is no red-green-blue for smell -- there are thousands of components needed." That's OK with us. In our experience, it's usually better that people keep their smells to themselves.
Nissan's Forest AC blows wild scents through your ride, keeps you alert
And here you were thinking Mercedes-Benz's Attention Assist system was the thing in driver alertness aides. In a rather odd, nearly jocose press release, Nissan has revived our faith in corporate R&D with the glorious introduction of the Forest AC. In short, this new air conditioning system "systematically controls cabin temperature, ventilation, aroma and humidity to create an optimal interior environment." Still bewildered? It means that the system can tap into an array of sensors in order to find out exactly what environment is best for your current state of mind, and if it needs to, it'll blast your nostrils with gusts of fresh forest in order to increase alertness while keeping stress levels down. The zaniest part of all, however, isn't the idea of using various aromas to keep one's attention; it's the fact that this system is actually scheduled for installation on a vehicle (the Fuga) that'll ship this fiscal year in Japan.
NASA's new e-nose can detect scent of cancerous brain cells
NASA's recently developed electronic nose, intended for air quality monitoring on Space Shuttle Endeavour and later the International Space Station, has a rather fortunate and unintended secondary role. In addition to being able to detect contaminants within about one to 10,000 parts per million, scientists have discovered it can also sniff out the difference in odor between normal and cancerous brain cells -- not a new use for e-noses, but certainly one that helps to advance the field. Groups such the as Brain Mapping Foundation, City of Hope Cancer Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been testing the technology and hope it one day leads to a new understanding of cancer development. We'd also wager it can accurately detect what cologne or perfume you're wearing, another unintended side effect and probably not as fun of a party trick as it seems. [Via Slashdot; image courtesy of RSC]
Science team creating 'smell effect' device for games
Listen, we're all for new and exciting video game peripherals which lend themselves to sensory immersion, but -- well, we're not really crazy about the idea of total sensory immersion, you know? Nevertheless, a team of engineers at Birmingham University are working on a device that exposes gamers to context-sensitive scents during their gaming sessions. Thank goodness this thing wasn't around when Conker's Bad Fur Day pooed up our N64s.The device, which uses a system of scented paraffin waxes and fans to simulate in-game smells, was partially funded by the Ministry of Defense for use in military training simulators, a fact that makes us equal parts uncomfortable and disappointed. Give us scented Cooking Mama over scented Call of Duty: World at War any day of the week.
Starting out in Vana'diel: See no evil, hear no evil, smell... no evil?
Hola mi amigos! Hoy es la dia de Vana'diel! *clears throat* Ahem, sorry about that. Hello adventurers, and welcome to another edition of Starting out in Vana'diel! Today's topic is actually one that I find quite cool about Final Fantasy XI, especially when you compare it to other MMOs. It's the mechanic that puts the fear of Promathia into every adventurer's step.Today's column is all about the different monster aggro types -- yes, there are different types. You want to find out more? Come, follow me, and let's find out more!
Pine-scented ASUS F6V laptop gets unboxed, smelled
We're not ones to just abruptly stick our nostrils in someone's business, but we couldn't help but drift over when waltzing by PC Authority's most recent unboxing. The smell we caught was of pine, and given that it's a pine-scented ASUS F6V that's being unwrapped, we suppose that all adds up. On the real, testers took note of an "unmistakable wafting scent of a pine forest, floating on the summer breeze and carrying away their troubles" as they cracked the seal on the carefree machine. For those curious, the scent was far from overbearing, though it was strong enough to separate itself from, um, non-smelly alternatives. Sadly, critics also mentioned that the odor had "almost entirely disappeared" after it had sat out in the open for a few hours, and at last check, there's no way to recharge or refill these things. Ah well, pack a few Christmas Tree Air Fresheners™ and you'll never know the difference.[Thanks, Geller]
