Can you imagine a world with no smells? Now, how would you like to smell on the internet?

Let’s say you are reading a cookie recipe and you actually smell cookies as if they came out of the oven. How about playing an internet game with pirates and the smell of the ocean surrounds you?

You will soon have your choice of two computer peripheral devices that will make your nose as involved in your Web experience as your eyes and ears. Let’s take a look at these devices.

iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer

In Oakland, Calif., DigiScents, Inc. is developing a digital scent device, called the iSmell. This gadget is designed to transmit digitized smells through your computer.

A prototype of the iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer is shaped like a shark’s fin, and it will be connected to your PC through a serial or universal serial bus (USB) port.

•DigiScents has indexed thousands of smells based on their chemical structure and their place on the scent spectrum.

•Each scent is then coded and digitized into a small file.

•The digital file is embedded in Web content or e-mail.

•A user requests or triggers the file by clicking a mouse or opening an e-mail.

•A small amount of the aroma is emitted by the device in the direct vicinity of the user.

The iSmell can create thousands of scents with a small cartridge containing 128 primary odors. These primary odors are mixed together to generate other. The scent cartridge, like a printer’s toner cartridge, will have to be replaced periodically to maintain the scent accuracy.

SENX Scent Device

TriSenx is taking it one step further, by allowing users to not only download scents, but to print out flavors that can be tasted. The Savannah, Ga. company has developed technology allowing users to print smells onto thick fiber paper sheets and taste specific flavors by licking the paper coated with the smell.

The fragrances and aromas are stored in a disposable cartridge within the SENX. This cartridge has 20 chambers, each holding a distinct scent. Thousands of smells can be created with a 20-chamber cartridge and a 40-palette rendition, which composes two separate cartridges.

By Carie Statz, DCTC Marketing and Sales Instructor