Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel,” said the 19th-century physician, poet and Harvard professor, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
No wonder, then, that technologists have long sought a way to transmit smell electronically. Imagine being able to send from your phone not just a photo but the aroma of freshly mown grass, the scents of an exotic spice market or of a brand new perfume, and know that the recipient would instantly experience it.
“Smell – and taste too – are going to be the next important dimensions for communicating by computer,” says Adrian Cheok, professor of pervasive computing at City University in London. “They are the only senses connected with the limbic system in the brain, which is responsible for emotion and memory. But it’s difficult to transmit smell because it’s analogue. It’s like sound was before MP3.”