Company seeks to bring scents to computer scene
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 1, 2001 9:00 p.m.
DigiScent Joel Bellenson (left) and
Dexster Smith are the co-founders of the DigiScent
technology, which will allow users to download scents from the
Internet.
By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Contributor
New home computing technology, designed to add smell to the
multimedia experience, will soon provide one less reason to leave
the computer and experience the outside world first-hand.
The iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer, from DigiScents, Inc., is
a speaker-sized device that connects to the USB port of your
computer and is capable of delivering whiffs of any scent to its
immediate area.
“Smell is one of the most powerful and evocative senses
that we have in terms of inducing memory and inducing feelings.
That’s something that we’re trying to harness and I
think it’s been missing for some time,” said Brian
Nelson, a spokesman for DigiScents, Inc.
“People say “˜multimedia,’ but it’s not
really multimedia,” he continued. “It’s just
sight and sound. With smell, it really is multimedia.”
The iSmell is a cartridge-based device, much like an inkjet
printer. When the user is on a scent-enabled Web site, the site
delivers the code for the scent to your computer, which in turn
delivers it to the iSmell. A similar process will be used for
games, where designers can assign scents to environments,
characters and prizes.
Scents are emitted from the device from a cartridge of scented
oils, which are vaporized and then blown to the user by a fan.
DigiScents has been working double time, developing software
kits to get companies started on the scent selecting process, while
finalizing the design of the iSmell.
“Let’s say you’re a travel Web site, and you
want to add the smells of suntan lotion and the ocean and things
like that, you can use our software kit to do that,” Nelson
said.
Response from businesses to the idea of adding smell to their
Web sites and games has been overwhelmingly positive, Nelson said,
and 4,500 developers have already requested the software kit.
Elizabeth Johnson, who, as vice president of scentography for
DigiScents works with clients to design fragrances, said that the
companies she has encountered are enthusiastic about using scents
in their content.
“I would say absolutely everybody we’ve spoken to is
really excited about it because they get an opportunity to really
think about how it will enhance media and Internet
experience,” Johnson said.
“Everyone’s mind goes crazy. They just keep saying,
“˜Wow, you can do this or you can do that,’ all sorts of
applications,” she continued.
Uses for the new technology include online shopping Web sites
such as Bath and Body Works where trademark scents can be
replicated, in addition to supplying other sites with mood setting
odors.
“A lot of things we’re doing for non-consumer
product applications are more nature smells or environmental
smells: the smell of air, the smell of the ocean, the smell of
stinky things like caves and haunted houses, musty mildew, that
kind of thing,” Johnson said .
Not everyone, however, will find the smell of all environments
replicated through their computer or game a pleasant
experience.
“I don’t know if I want to smell dead bodies,”
said Matyas Matolcsi, a second-year computer science student, about
the possibility of scent-enabling video games.
Purely judging it on practical use, Matolcsi does not see it
having the same usefulness as sound.
“The idea of having my computer put out a scent ““
the usability of that is zero,” he said.
At least at first, however, DigiScents expects buyers to be
those looking for a new gadget, but hopes that later the technology
will become more generally accepted and used.
“I think initially it’s certainly going to be the
people who like new technology and like the toys, the people into
let’s say video games, but we think that down the line this
is going to be as standard as sound,” Nelson said.
By releasing the software scent selection kits long before the
iSmell device, DigiScents hopes to have as many companies as
possible scent-enabled by the fall, when iSmell is tentatively
scheduled to be distributed.
“That’s our goal, to have as much content as we
possibly can,” Johnson said. “And then I think once
people who aren’t part of the initial launch get an
opportunity to experience it, they’ll want this application
for their business, or whatever form of media they’re
doing.”
Nelson also predicts an eventual growth in the use of iSmell
following its initial, new gadget popularity. He said that, much
like computer sound, iSmell will become standard equipment on
computers.
“Keep in mind that when speakers first came out for
computers people said, “˜You don’t need speakers for
your computer. You don’t even need color, I’m fine with
what I have,'” he said. “But now it’d be
hard to find a computer that doesn’t come with speakers.
“We’re hoping that down the line this becomes a
standard,” he continued.
TECHNOLOGY: iSmell is expected to be released
in the fall, and will cost under $200. The price and the release
date have not been finalized. For more information, go to www.digiscents.com.
