Now, You Can Actually Send Scented Text Messages
Soon the most obsessive brunch documenters of Instagram and Facebook could outdo one another in a new, more pungent manner — the scent text message.
By Sadho Ram — 18 Jun 2014, 01:47 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Just imagine a world where you could snap a picture of your fancy meal, upload it to Instagram and your followers could actually get a waft of your pizza?
Inventor David Edwards and his partner Rachel Field demonstrate a system for electronically tagging and transmitting scents through the internet called the oPhone on June 17, 2014.
Image via abcnews.comDavid Edwards is making that happen. Edwards, a Harvard professor and head of science/art innovation lab Le Laboratoire, just unveiled the first commercial version of his oPhone, the DUO, a cylindrical gadget that transmits scents (called oNotes) via an app called oSnap.
mashable.com
Think of it as a mobile messaging platform for sending aromatic emoticons. The oPhone might look like a strange medical device, but Edwards is betting it could usher in the beginning of the aromatic communication age.
wired.com
On Tuesday, the American Museum of Natural History played host to an oPhone, where Edwards received the first trans-Atlantic scent message—a Champagne-and-chocolate smell-o-gram sent from Paris to New York
The oPhone, available to purchase on Indiegogo for $149, will be available to test at certain hotspots in New York, Paris, and Cambridge
Image via yimg.comThe app has an Instagram-like automatic camera with which the user can snap photos of the object they wish to send. After the photo is taken, a tagging menu appears with a selection of scent notes for the user to choose from, such as butter, cocoa beans, baguette or red wine.
wired.com
Up to eight different scents can be combined to give the recipient the full picture of a meal or other experience. The photo and its corresponding scent tags are then messaged to the recipient, who uses a scent-transmitting machine called an oPhone to "receive" the smell.
mashable.com
But how does it work?
According to Wired, the oPhone DUO, “a kind of telephone for aromas,” features two cylindrical gadgets that deliver bursts of scents for 10 seconds at a time. This is made possible by the oChip, a tiny cartridge that can produce hundreds of odors and that Edwards hopes will one day be installed in your smartphone.
slate.comThe oPhone DUO has eight chips, each containing four aromas. Vapor Communications compares them to ink cartridges—they are capable of diffusing 32 aromas in more than 300,000 different combinations over potentially hundreds of uses.
wired.com
When you send an oNote, your recipient will click a link that leads him to a photo, as well as the specific aromatic notes you have chosen
When connected to the oPhone Duo, the hardware piece, it’ll emit slight scents from two separate pipes to be smelled in conjunction with the message. Otherwise, the app will just offer some vivid description of the scent your sender is trying to convey.
You don’t have to own the oPhone hardware, which starts at $149 on the company’s Indiegogo page, to send or receive a smell. Anyone without the contraption will still be able to tag images using the oSnap app (out in the App Store now) and mark it with around 16 different high and low notes. Currently, user creations range from “Lady Gaga” to “My Room” to “Smoky Beach.”
You will eventually be able to send their smelly pictures via Facebook and Twitter, as well as email
“Since your nose loses its sensitivity to scent after a relatively short period, it’s better for an aroma to be detected in the short term,” Edwards says. “Your nose is made for olefactory Tweets.”
wired.com
The team envisions the device becoming commonplace in restaurants, coffee shops and other places where explaining complex smells and flavors can be difficult. Edwards suggested that baristas could use the oPhone to give customers a sense of a product before buying.
mashable.com