How we could soon all be watching Smell-O-Vision: Film festivals recreate 1960 concept as new virtual reality technology is released
[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is an interesting short history of smell in cinema.]
...new technology now being developed includes a Japanese smelling screen with four small fans - and a virtual reality mask called ‘Feelreal’ which immerses viewers in sight, sound and smell.
More recently in 2013, scientists in Tokyo, Japan, revealed they had invented a 'smelling screen' making smells waft from the spot on a display that their corresponding objects appear.
It works by feeding odours from gel pellets into four air streams in each corner of the screen which are blown across the display’s surface.
Other recent inventions include the oPhone Duo, which came to light in 2014 after scientists sent the smell of champagne and macarons from Paris to New York via an iPhone app.
The oPhone Duo’s system features an app allowing users to make an 'oNote' with a smell created out of a palette of 32 scents that can be combined in 300,000 possible combinations.
In other new technology, the £200 Feelreal virtual reality mask revealed in California in spring 2015 promises users 'the most immersive, unbelievable and fascinating virtual experience you’ve ever known'.
An odour generator built into the headset has seven removable smell cartridges that can be changed depending on the film users are watching or video game they are playing.
See the full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3334085/How-soon-watching-Smell-O-Vision-Film-festivals-recreate-1960-concept-new-virtual-reality-technology-released.html