More News in Home Scentertainment!

As we know from Chapter 7 of Whiff!, the idea of scented entertainment is an old one, dating back to 1916 when the enterprising owner of the Family Theater in Forest City, Pennsylvania, got the keen idea to place a wad of rose oil-soaked cotton in front of an electric fan during a newsreel about the Rose Bowl game. Although the name didn’t stick for another 23 years, Smell-O-Vision was thus born.

Massive changes and growths in the technology and popularity of Smell-O-Vision have taken place in the 93 years since, particularly since the advent of digital and dry-air technology managed to solve the stubborn problem of dissipating one scent before introduction of the next. Among the newest generation of promising scentertainment devices is the Smellit, brainchild of Portuguese designer Nuno Teixeira.

Geared for the home-DVD market, this clever concept device works similarly to the way an inkjet printer works, but instead of ink cartridges, the Smellit is loaded with 118 individual scent cartridges which mix and release appropriate amount of aromas which are distributed by a fan. To work with TV, Smellit has a built-in “smell card” that decodes scent information embedded in and passed along from a DVD. About 10-20 seconds before a particular scene, the device reads and decodes information embedded in the DVD and mixes the appropriate scent, so that its release is perfectly coordinated to reach the noses of spectators in conjunction with the appropriate scene.

Although Smellit currently relies on digital codes embedded in participating DVDs to trigger its “smell card,” the looming digital conversion may soon make the device completely compatible with regular television broadcasting–definitely a sweet-smelling prospect for advertisers!