Recently I’ve seen a boom in scent based experiences. They have been relatively spread out among different products or systems, and even through time. Scent is not a new invention by any means, but I have been noticing its implementation more and more. I want to start with a quick example. You may or may not be familiar with the tricks Disney uses in their theme parks to help elevate the experience, but they also incorporate many smells. Most places who talk about the ‘smellitizers,’ such as this article from Insider, only mention the ambient smells. But Disney also purportedly uses smells to push sales of different items. The common folk tales usually involves the smell of fresh, hot popcorn to entice the average park goer to help Disney fill their quota of popcorn sales. Both instances I’ve talked about the use of smell to enhance or direct an experience. I’ve even found that you can buy the ambient smells of Disney, in a convenient candle form!
What does Animation smell like? Well you can find out for only 18 USD #NotSponsored
Candles are a big way of introducing smells into systems. While I just mentioned the Disney line, that same company has other properties like Harry Potter’s Butterbeer, and I’ve seen various candles around the theme of even Dungeons and Dragons. Want your room to smell like you’re fighting a dragon, you can buy it! Another great source of smell activation is in diffusers. These cheap and lightweight smell projectors have made filling a room with scent very easy. One way I wasn’t expecting it to be used was in a Horror Themed, Live Action Roleplaying Game. In the game the players take on the role of paranormal investigators and have to uncover clues about murders on the farm where the game occurs. The game staff will do lots of fun things throughout the weekend such as replace art/furniture, play audio or use projections to both present clues and scare the players, and pump smells into different areas to give players certain understanding of their scenario. When investigating about a specific character in the game, the game administrators will use diffusers to fill the area with lavender scent. Not only does it make the room smell nice, it tells the players subconsciously that they are finding information relating to a specific character. If you are interested in finding out more about that game here is the video from Mo Mo O’Brian, who documents immersive experiences all over the world.
So we the sudden interest in smells? Well dear reader, recently I was listening to a talk about alarm systems and how they are developed. The thing that caught my eye, ironic given the context, was smell. One of the types of alarms was Olfactory. While most would gravitate toward the smell of natural gas as a warning sign, I started thinking about how you could use smells in different contexts. Surprisingly, someone had already come up with an alarm clock designed to use smells as the alarm! It’s called the Sensorwake Trio and it is designed to activate all of your senses to help wake you up.
It reached funding on both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo
While I have never used this alarm clock, people seem to be excited about it. Google said it was one of the top 15 inventions that could change the world. While I don’t think that panned out as Google predicted it would in 2017, it’s still a neat device. Will it change the world? Well personally, I think it would have done so by now. But this is still a use of smell as an active alarm. I think theres a lot of cool things that we can do with smell, especially since its now easily transferred thanks to things like candles and diffusers. What do you think, will smell revolutionize the standards of alarm technology in the near or distant future? Is there a cool scent based technology you know about that I didn’t include? Please let me know!