Scientists develop a way to send smells over the internet. Could you sniff before you buy?

Highlights

• The Scentronic prototype can identify and recreate aromas including coffee, cake, oranges, beer and red wine.
• An electronic nose converts scent patterns into data that can be sent to another device over the internet.
• The system is a proof of concept, with the recreated smells offering only an approximation of the original.

Imagine browsing for a perfume online and being able to smell it before placing an order, or sharing the aroma of a meal with someone thousands of miles away.

Scientists have taken a step towards that possibility by developing a system that can detect smells, transmit information about them digitally and recreate an approximation at another location.

The prototype, called Scentronic, uses an electronic nose to identify an odour and turn it into data. A receiving device then uses its own supply of scented liquids to produce a similar smell.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances, explores how smell could become another part of digital communication, alongside images, video and sound.

But the technology does not actually send molecules of a smell through the internet. Instead, it sends information that allows a separate device to reproduce an aroma using ingredients already available to it.

How the electronic nose works?

The process begins with an electronic nose fitted with six gas sensors. These detect volatile organic compounds, the molecules released into the air by substances such as food, drinks and perfumes.

Different aromas produce different patterns of electrical signals across the sensors. Researchers used artificial intelligence to train the system to recognise those patterns and distinguish between five scent categories: coffee, cake, oranges, beer and red wine.

Once the device identifies an aroma, it sends the corresponding digital information to a remote generator.

That machine contains small reservoirs of scented liquid and electrically powered discs that vibrate at high frequencies. The vibrations push the liquid through microscopic holes, creating a fine mist that releases the scent.

The intensity of the recreated aroma can be adjusted by changing the vibration of the discs.

Chunyu Yang, a doctoral researcher at Ohio State University and lead author of the study, said the work addressed an area of digital communication that has received comparatively little attention.

“Much of the research in this area focuses on sight, sound and touch, while smell has received comparatively less attention,” Yang said. “We wanted to explore how to bring this missing sensory dimension into digital communication.”

Could it change online shopping?

The researchers see potential applications in online shopping, entertainment and communication, where smells could help people experience products or environments remotely.

For shoppers, the technology could eventually offer another way to assess products such as perfumes, food and drinks before buying them. In digital entertainment, it could add aromas to experiences designed to recreate particular places or situations.

However, the current system has important limitations.

It can only recognise the five categories it has been trained on, rather than identify any smell presented to it. And its generator cannot reproduce every detail of an original aroma.

A device that detects coffee, for example, may be able to recreate a general coffee smell, but not the distinctive aroma of a particular bean or brewing method.

In tests, the electronic nose identified the five trained scent categories with at least 96 per cent accuracy. But when 14 volunteers were asked to identify the artificially generated aromas, they were correct around 73 per cent of the time.

The findings are therefore an early demonstration of how digital scent transmission might work, rather than evidence that shoppers will soon be able to smell products through their phones.

A long-running ambition

The idea of adding smells to technology has been explored for decades.

In the 1960s, cinemas experimented with Smell-O-Vision, which released scents into auditoriums to accompany scenes on screen.

An American company, DigiScents, later developed a computer accessory called iSmell, intended to release fragrances linked to websites and emails. The venture folded in 2001 before the product reached consumers.

Scentronic builds on that ambition by combining electronic sensing, artificial intelligence and a device that can generate aromas remotely.

For now, the researchers have demonstrated that scent information can be recognised, transmitted and recreated in a limited form. Turning that into a reliable way for people to smell products online will require further development.