More on Birmingham’s Multisensory War Games

It was last November that the Whiff-Guys first sniffed out the smelly new Virtual Battleground being pioneered by the Human Interface Technologies team at the University of Birmingham and funded largely by the UK’s Ministry of Defense. Now twelve months into the three-year project, the Birmingham team is extensively testing the accuracy of the software and peripheral set-up. One such tester is PhD student and former Royal Navy sailor Mark Blyth. “The smell is activated when the virtual soldier walks past something like a market or a tiny side street, and the computer triggers the scent. What we are trying to discover is if smell enhances a person’s perception.”

In November, Professor Bob Stone, lead researcher on the project, suggested that the device might be up for sale to the general public within two to three years if an affordable version could be devised, stating, “There is no doubt in my mind that the games companies are looking for an inexpensive version for the domestic market.” It was a potential hurdle that could have prevented the system from being considered for mass market and recreational game production.

Now, with the current prototype costing as little as $25 per unit, Professor Stone’s team appears to have leapt that hurdle nicely. The device consists of eight chambers to hold and mix over 100 types of scented wax and a a boxed odor fan which attaches to the PC.

“It’s a way of capturing feelings,” says Blyth. “Sometimes people have a sense that something is wrong, but we have to find out how they know that. Is it smell? Is it someone running through the marketplace? Is it the silence? If smell is one of the main factors then there is a lot of scope for this to be used to help train soldiers’ noses.”

The game software is now demonstrating several different scenarios, from a ‘sniper position’ to a swelling crowd of people, and the Whiff-Guys look forward to further developments in this exciting project.