Here’s What Happens When You Add Scent to Virtual Reality
Li, who’s working with working with Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab, thinks the combination of smell, touch, and VR could be used in a bunch of different ways in the future—some more dystopian-sounding than others.
Or perhaps using scent along with virtual reality could help you eat a healthier diet without feeling that you’re missing out. You might see and smell a juicy cheeseburger while actually chomping on a plant-based patty.
When it comes to food in VR, seeing is not enough to make someone who’s eating one thing believe it’s really another, Li says. To prove that, he’s conducting experiments with people to see how they react when they feel a doughnut in their hands, see one on their VR headsets, and get a whiff from a swab doused in a chocolate scent.
After the fake doughnut is revealed, Li offers participants real ones to eat. This is more than a reward—the researchers want to figure out if people who see, smell, and touch the doughnut have a greater appetite for real doughnuts than those who don’t.
Li isn’t ready to draw conclusions from the data. But he says that anecdotally, once people see, smell, and touch the doughnut virtually they start craving one—not surprising, considering how I felt after my experience in the lab.
See the full story here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603528/heres-what-happens-when-you-add-scent-to-virtual-reality/