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Credit: Xinge Yu/City University of Hong Kong.
Virtual and augmented reality technologies have come a good distance in replicating sights and sounds, but what about smell?
Imagine walking through a fantastic orchard, smelling the sweet scent of fruit wafting through the air. Or experiencing the foul stench of durian fruit, all from the comfort of your personal home.
Now, researchers from China and Hong Kong have developed a wearable device that lets users smell anything they need, all while interacting with virtual reality (VR).
A brand new era of multi-layered experience for virtual reality
In a brand new study within the journal Nature Communications, the researchers detailed a light-weight, flexible, and wireless olfactory system that may recreate various familiar odors in real-time.
The device, which users wear near their nose, uses odor generators made with paraffin wax, attached to a programmable heat source.
As the source heats up, the wax melts and the specified smells are released. The team ran VR simulations of individuals walking through an orchard or picking up a flower while wearing the device. As people interact more closely with a virtual source of smell, akin to bringing a virtual rose as much as the nose, the device heats up further, producing stronger smells.
A magnetic induction coil conducts the warmth away to rapidly shut off the odor once a virtual stimulus is out of reach.
The researchers integrated a “grid” of smells that provide a layered and multi-smell experience. Users can smell anything from apples to caramel to even mojitos. There are 30 odors in total available.
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For now, there are two versions: a small patch that could be stuck to the user’s top lip but only includes two odor generators, and a bigger mask that goes over the nose and has nine odor generators for a richer experience.
This opens the door for truly immersive virtual reality experiences, whether it’s movies or video games, however the technology could even have educational or medical purposes.
For instance, the VR face mask might be used to evoke memories in patients affected by amnesia and dementia. Yiming Liu, a researcher with the Department of Biomedical Engineering on the City University of Hong Kong and chief writer of the paper, explains that odors bypass the thalamus, the brain’s information center, and go on to the olfactory center of the brain. This may explain why odors can trigger memories and emotions.
Smell: an underappreciated sense
As science accelerates towards “the creation of a flawless 3D virtual world,” this latest technology takes us one step closer to completely immersing ourselves in virtual reality.
The device offers a more realistic and multi-sensory experience, unlocking the complete potential of virtual reality. However, this just isn’t the primary such attempt.
Previous VR olfactory systems relied on atomizers much like those present in essential-oil diffusers and medical nebulizers, but their most important drawback is that they require liquid odor sources that could be cumbersome. The solid wax paraffin allows the technology to be integrated right into a single compact device that could be attached on to the face.
The idea to enhance an experience with smell is definitely not latest in any respect. For instance, a 1922 issue of the magazine Science and Invention described certainly one of the wackiest devices ever conceived: the smell organ. This is a conceptual musical instrument wherein a musician would shoot certain scents when playing certain keys on the organ. Some people laughed at the concept, but it surely could have been just ahead of its time.
It’s clear that this latest technology is just the start. As virtual and augmented reality technologies proceed to evolve, we will expect to see much more advances in our ability to copy and experience the world around us.
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