Ever since the Industrial Revolution really got going, we've been trying to communicate with scent. And on the surface, it's a seemingly clever idea. But it's run into a few problems over the years. The latest trying to break through is Scentee.
The Japanese Take A Shot
Scentee is a Japanese company, but let me stop you before you say 'Of course it is.' The idea of getting electronics to emit smells dates back to, well, the beginning of electronics. They've even tried to introduce concepts like Smell-O-Vision with movies like 'Scent of Mystery.' In fact, the most recent variant of this comes from a company called ScentScape, which has been trying to give games smell for a couple of years. No word on the stench of failure. So Scentee is, if anything, fairly common.
...Well, 'Common'
This doesn't mean, however, that it's not weird. The basic idea is that you plug a little device in the top of your iPhone, fill it with various essential oils, and then, well, start sniffing. The device works in conjunction with an app, and it unleashes everything from the standard flower scents you'd expect to scents like curry and roast coffee. Sadly, new car smell does not seem to be an option.
Sorry, there's nothing excessive and outre in the smells, either, unless you think curry is weird, in which case, I have bottomless pity for you, since curry is delicious.
Will It Succeed?
Honestly? Nah. Part of the problem is that this stuff can smell less like a pleasant hint in the air and more like a concentrated pestilential stench if it goes wrong; to create smells requires some pretty 'volatile' (in the sense they give off smells easily) liquids. Spill one cartridge and basically your house will smell like that until the end of time. So you probably won't see this crossing the Pacific any time soon. But hey, it's still kinda neat!
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