Did you know that back during the dot-com boom, an Oakland, CA-based company called DigiScents created a USB-connected scent synthesizer called the iSmell? Hooked up to a computer or gaming console, it was supposed to enable scented email, web pages, and games using essential oils and an internal fan. The buzz was so big that it was featured on the cover of Wired magazine. Sadly, lacking the venture capital to move beyond the prototype iSmell machine, DigiScents shut down after two years, and the iSmell was never to be.
Since the failure of DigiScents, Korean technology experts have predicted that internet-delivered scent will be commonplace by 2015. Tokyo, Japan-based NTT Communications has been forging ahead with its own attempts. In 2006 NTT release the USB-connected Aroma Geur device, which syncs scent with what’s playing on the radio, via internet-sent instructions from the radio station. More recently, NTT’s working with the internet-based ability to send scents from your phone, as well as a more sophisticated, internet-controlled fragrance dispenser, currently being used in conjunction with NTT’s scent-emitting signage.
Thanks to CNN for their interesting article about scent marketing and the quest to bring fragrance to the internet, which is what inspired this post.
