A new concept television releases scent to enhance viewing experience.
A research team at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has created a television with the ability to add aromas to the home entertainment experience.
Unlike the original “Smell-o-Vision”, which flooded an entire theater with odors, the new smelling screen can isolate and place scents.
The system incorporates 4 fans that blow specific smells into specific places. On the low setting the airflow is barely noticeable to the viewer. It’s as if an object on the screen is emanating an essence.
Still in its experimental stages, there are no plans at this time to make the product commercially available.
Perhaps the developers are still fine-tuning to avoid the mishaps that fell upon its technological ancestor “Smell-o-Vision”.
Introduced in 1960, the attempt to enhance the sensory experience with olfactory stimuli was mostly a complete failure.
Audiences complained about delivery delays and some aromas lingering and mixing to create unpleasant odors.
About 20 years later John Waters had significantly more success with his own version called “Odorama”. Audiences attending his film Polyester were given scratch-and-sniff cards.
