Record and Playback Smell
It’s trivial to record and re-create sound, only slightly more difficult to do the same for our visual inputs. Touch, we figured out back in the virtual reality days, even if the applications haven’t quite bowled us over.
But taste and smell are something altogether different. Sure, any self-respecting fast/snack food giant has a lab or two in the Flavor Corridor able to whip up any flavor or taste on request, but the practice is still as much art as it is science.
And I certainly can’t record or design smells on my desktop, nor can I play them back as I explore a virtual world or watch a DVD.
It is possible. And it appears that some are trying to commercialize the technology and bring it to the desktop (and, no doubt, the mobile phone.) There were companies trying to commercialize the tech back during the last dotcom boom… I really hope they get there this time.
