An electronic nose detects an odor in one place, and a wearable device recreates it somewhere else, even far away. That is the promise of Scentronic, a technology developed by researchers at Ohio State University and described in the journal Science Advances. For now the system recognizes only a few aromas, but the idea is to add smell to the images and sounds people already share online.
At the heart of the system is an electronic nose, a device with an array of gas sensors that detect the chemical compounds associated with different odors. A machine-learning model then classifies the data and recognizes the odors it has been trained to identify. The prototype, according to reports, distinguishes five aromas: beer, cake, coffee, red wine and orange wine. The recognized information is sent over an online platform to a scent generator, which releases the fragrances needed to recreate the aroma at the receiving end.
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The novelty, explains Chunyu Yang, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering and lead author of the study, is that Scentronic brings odor detection and generation together in one system for remote sharing. "In simple terms, it connects 'smelling something here' with 'recreating the corresponding smell somewhere else,'" he said. According to the researchers, digital communication can take place at any distance, from across the room to around the world. Yang also notes that smell remains a very undeveloped sense technologically: while sight, sound and even touch are already routinely communicated electronically, odors never have been.
The applications imagined range from communication between people to virtual reality. The scent of a pine forest or coffee, the researchers suggest, could add a new dimension to virtual worlds and long-distance conversations. The idea of smell effects has long existed in games and films, but until now there was no practical way to transmit an odor to a distant person.
The main limit is clear: the repertoire is reduced to five aromas, and the researchers say the goal is to expand it over time. The work is a laboratory prototype, not a product ready for the public. No prices, commercial release dates or availability for users have been announced.
The project fits into a line of research on digital olfaction that in recent years has involved several universities and laboratories. Open questions remain about how precisely the technology can reproduce complex aromas and how the emitting devices can become comfortable to use.
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