perfume
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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.
AI might concoct your next perfume
Perfumers look out: IBM Research partnered up with one of the top producers of flavors and fragrances, Symrise, to create an perfume-concocting AI. Named Philyra, after the Greed goddess of fragrance, it uses machine learning to sift through thousands of ingredients, formulas and industry trends to derive what IBM considers to be unique combinations. IBM is leveraging the AI to help perfumers design the next great scent rather than a machine that will replace experts of the human nose.
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.
Selfie cameras that look like perfume bottles are going to be a thing
It's no secret that girls in China are obsessed with taking selfies, but there's also a local trend of slapping a Chanel perfume bottle case onto their phones. No, we don't understand, either. Nevertheless, Sony is seizing this opportunity by releasing a new Cyber-shot camera that not only looks like a perfume bottle, but its big lens -- encased in a clear brick with a gold accent -- can also be flipped around to suit your needs. While it seems that Sony's seeded this bizarre device to several Chinese female influencers and models, they're remaining tight-lipped about the specs, but all will be revealed in China on August 22nd.
Samsung patents perfume-packing cellphone... again
Seriously, Samsung, what the heck is with the scented cellphone patents? This isn't the first, or even the second time you've thought to put pockets of perfume in a handset. This latest patent is slightly different from earlier concepts, we suppose. We see this one has a scent refilling station built into the charging dock. So, when you set the phone down to charge the battery, it also "charges" the aromatic sponge in the body. It's also notable that this isn't a passive scented strip or a spraying mechanism. Instead the "absorbant material" is heated, either by the battery directly or by circuitry triggered as part of an alert. So, every time your hippy buddy calls, your phone could blast Phish and fill the air with the scent of patchouli (or, something else...).
Daily Update for June 4, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
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]
No Comment: MacBook perfume project smells like new unboxing
It may just be an art installation and not a commercial product, but what Apple fan wouldn't want to buy a bottle of scent offering the essences of, ink, paper, foam, sticky tape, and a hint of glue? For the enthusiast who has everything, who has ransacked the Mothership store for wardrobe, the local store for computing, and whose basement is filled with artsy Ebay-sourced Performa and Centris nostalgia, all that's possibly left to internalize the product is to become the product. Enter Air Aroma. According to the Co.DESIGN write-up, their lab "smell-analyzed" a MacBook along with its packaging to create a virtual MacBook scent out of an array of natural products: leather and lily flower, plastic film and cold metal, and of course, musk. "Musk. It's not the first thing that comes to mind when you think 'MacBook,'", Mark Wilson writes, "But maybe these secretions of a mature male deer have been in Apple's secret potion all along." To that, we say No Comment.
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]
Jeff Mills' vinyl and CD hybrid disc unites young and old
Whether you like it old school or new, techno DJ/producer Jeff Mills has the disc for you. Manufactured by Optimal Media using tech it introduced a few years back, the disc features a 5-inch vinyl pressing on one side and a digital CD on the other. But for $35, it had better ship with an adapter to keep it centered on the turntable's spindle (unlike the picture above). If the vinyl/CD hybrid isn't kooky enough for your experimental tastes then why not consider sharing your talent on Optimal Media's scratch and sniff discs -- why should the stench of stale beer mixed with gastric acid be limited to your live shows?%Gallery-95516%
Japan facing Final Fantasy XIII oversaturation crisis
And you thought Halo 3-themed Game Fuel was bad. A recent round of advertisements have taken Japan by storm, all of which either shill for Final Fantasy XIII, or some product based on the unflagging RPG franchise. Posted after the break are a series of videos, including a short TV spot for the game, two ads for the presumably refreshing Elixir beverage, and a commercial for a commercial (well, a behind-the-scenes documentary) which will be released shortly after the game is released in Japan. Also, they're making a perfume based off the game's main character. It's called Lightning eau de toilet. There's no video advertisement to accompany this news, but we'd have been remiss had we not mentioned it to you.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Love is in the Air Valentine's Event may get a new boss
While most of us are probably still downloading the massive PTR files, as usual, some people have had more time than others to download them and root through them for gems and treasures. MMO Champion's database of new spells has revealed something pretty intriguing. Note the following list of spells: Concentrated Irresistible Cologne Spill Alluring Perfume Alluring Perfume Spray Cologne Immune Perfume Immune [ph] Exotic Cologne Perfume and Cologne, as you may recall, are two of the main parts of the Love is in the Air Valentine's Day related world event, wherein players exchange tokens with NPCs for fabulous prizes. Given that we now have a set of spells coming up that put those two substances in the context of damaging abilities that can be protected against, it seems like Kisirani and the world event team are ready to deliver again, and we'll possibly have a very interesting new boss this coming February. Unfortunately, we can't tell much else about it right now, although hopefully we may learn more as the PTR progresses and more data is found. It's worth noting that if the world event design team is creating a new level 80 boss for a February event, they may not be expecting Cataclysm to be out by then.
Future Samsung phones to blast you with freshness?
It may not be the oddest application of pleasant emanations from a handset, but Samsung's recent patent app is still up there in the "technologies the mobile world doesn't really need" category. The idea is pretty simple: a fragrant strip is embedded either in the slide mechanism for sliders or in the hinge on clamshells; every time the phone is opened, friction against the strip releases the fresh scent of springtime daisies (or pine, or Beef Wellington, or whatever you're into). It's not clear from the application whether the strips would be user-replaceable, but they're emphatic that it'll last a long time -- so this isn't like gum that tastes good for all of five seconds, apparently. We think we still prefer our phones smelling like... well, nothing, but that's just us. [Via Cellpassion]
3-in-1 cigarette lighter / air purifier / perfume dispenser won't make your cigarettes any safer, your car any less rank
We know you like nothing more than a fine cheroot after a late dinner, especially when you find yourself behind the wheel -- and no, one of those new-fangled e-cigarettes will not do the trick. What you need is the 3-in-1 automatic cigarette lighter / air purifier / perfume bottle. It'll light your light, filter your smoke, and what it doesn't get out of the air will be masked by whichever parfume du jour you choose to supply for included the 15 ml. reservoir (we suggest Hai Karate). Retails at $54.99, car charger included.
Eau de Pikachu
Not content with appearing on everything from headphones to lunch boxes to aeroplanes to lil' kites, Pikachu has now joined the likes of Christina Aguilera and Sean 'Diddy' Combs in fronting a perfume line. This Pokémon perfume is manufactured by Air Val International, and is made entirely from water and the finely ground bones of captured Pokémon surprisingly affordable -- Shop.com has it on offer at a tempting $15.Anybody out there actually picked this up? Because if so, we need to know what Pokémon smell of.[Via The Tanooki]
Mobiado captures essence of mobile in a bottle
"Why, Bill, your cologne -- I, I can only assume you're toting a luxury cellphone." Les hommes should supposedly expect such provocative complements when donning Mobiado's newest venture, Perfume No. 919, created in cooperation with fragrance guru Bissol. The target demographic for this pricey liquid ($300) is quite literally "luxury mobile phone users" of the male persuasion; what we don't understand, however, is what that smells like or why we'd want to duplicate it. At any rate, if this all makes sense to you but you're worried about spilling your precious eau du mobile in shipment, fear not; Perfume No. 919 comes bottled with "a double industrial o-ring seal system to prevent leaks."[Via T3]
