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You are driving to work in the morning and a gentle scent of citrus fruits is keeping you alert. There's a fly in the car, but before it starts to annoy you the tiny sensor on your cuff button detects it and releases a targetted mist of insecticide.
20 minutes later, you arrive at the office smelling great; that new perfume you downloaded from the web is really doing it for you. In the afternoon, after a stressful meeting, the tiny biosensors in you clothes detect that you need to relax, so a calming lavender starts to fill your personal scent bubble.
This may sound like science fiction, but a handful of enthusiasts have been working quietly on the nascent technology. One of them is Jenny Tillotson, a researcher and a designer at the University of the Arts in London, England.
Tillotson produced the world's first interactive scent outfit. She called her prototype dress 'Smart Second Skin'. Smart because it senses the wearer's mood, 'second skin' because it interacts with the wearer and their environment.
Smart Second Skin combines lab-on-a-chip technology with miniature bio-sensors. Lab-on-a-chip allows the storage and handling of tiny amounts of fluids on small chips. These chips can be programmed to release specific scents at specific times.
"Just as people store different genres of music on their iPods, this method offers a new sensory system to collect and store a selection of fragrances close to the body: a modern iPod of the fragrance industry embedded in fashion" Tillotson says.
Joseph Kaye, an IT researcher from Cornell University, in Ithaca, U.S. says he is sceptical about most existing applications of digital scent technology.
"A lot of the current technology is a solution looking for a problem," he says. "We haven't figured out exactly the right applications for it yet. There are astonishing things we could do with the technology, but I don't think we have a good handle on what those are yet."
One area that he says does looks promising are Tillotson's computerised, wearable scents. "This is for a simple reason, that people do wear scents so there is a real potential there if that can be incorporated more into everyday life."
Her newest gadget is the button-sized 'eScent'. It contains bio-sensors that monitor changes in the blood pressure, respiration and skin's electric potential. When it detects a change, it sends signals to the lab-on-a-chip devices, which then change the type or intensity of fragrance released.
Though currently crude at detecting more subtle mood changes, the idea is that eScent will eventually be able to detect stress or anxiety and then release appropriate scents to soothe the wearer. "I'm more interested in health aspects linked to aromachology, the science of fragrance, rather than just a gimmicky scent delivery system that substitutes the perfume bottle," Tillotson says.
There is evidence to show that there is a direct link between the sense of smell and human health and well-being. "Three quarters of the emotions that we generate on a daily basis are affected by smell," she says. "Certain odours can also relieve side effects from chemotherapy, or significantly benefit people who suffer from insomnia, muscle stiffness, bronchitis, poor concentration, indigestion, and high-blood pressure."
This is Cool
WOW! AMAZING!
Bad idea!
There are some of us, myself included, that avoid all fragrances when possible.The perfume isle and major stores are the worst, followed by the laundry detergent isle at the grocer.
Next in line, being trapped in an elevator with people who have so much cologne and perfume on that they can't smell it.
Next, home air fresheners, scented deodorant, scented soaps.
What happens to people like me?
We can taste the fake scents in the air and we choke, our sinus swell and we develop headaches.
Please keep your scents away from us!