A Brief Introduction to Immersive Systems: Smell-O-Vision and its legacy
Up to this point, during our research, we’ve already laid down a quite detailed time-line of the history of VR. However, as we’ve previously mentioned, VR is not the only means of immersive technology. In this post, we are discussing digital scent technology. “Digital sense technology (or olfactory technology) is the engineering discipline dealing with olfactory representation. It is a technology to sense, transmit and receive scent-enabled digital media (such as web pages, video games, movies and music). This sensing part of this technology works by using olfactometers and electronic noses.”
Its history begins in the late 1950s when Hans Laube invents the Smell-O-Vision, “a process in which evocative smells were pumped to the cinema audience through pipes leading to individual seats in the auditorium. Bottles of scent were held on a rotating drum and the process was triggered by a signal on the film itself. It made its only appearance in the 1960 film “Scent of Mystery”, produced by Mike Todd Jr. The process injected 30 odors into a movie theater's seats when triggered by the film's soundtrack.”
“In 1906, a Pennsylvania movie theater soaked a wad of cotton wool in rose oil and placed it in front of a fan. When a newsreel about the Rose Bowl played, they turned on the fan and the smell of roses wafted over the theater.”
On the image(source) above we see Mike Todd Jr. (left) with Hans Laube, the inventor of the Smell-O-Vision (right).
(image source)
John Waters paid homage to Smell-O-Vision with his 1981 film “Polyester”. Waters created the process of Odorama and, rather than pumping in scents, used individual audience "Scratch and Sniff" cards.
“Behind the Great Wall”, a film directed by Italian director Carlo Lizzani was released on December 2, 1959, just three weeks ahead of “Scent of Mystery”. It was accompanied by a process called "AromaRama", to send scents through the air-conditioning system of a theater. The particular technique was invented by Charles Weiss.”
“But in the end all of these methods remained relatively unsuccessful and mainly failed due to the fact that a specific smell cannot be eliminated in time before the next one is used!”
“The Old Grey Hare is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon. The cartoon starts with Elmer Fudd sitting under a tree, crying over his failure to catch Bugs. The "voice of God" tells Elmer to keep trying to catch him. Elmer wonders how long it will it take -and is shown exactly how long by being transported "far into the future" past the years 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, until reaching the then-distant year of A.D. 2000, after the sound of the gong. Elmer finds a year 2000 newspaper. One headline says, "Smellevision Replaces Television: Carl Stalling Sez It Will Never Work!" (1:54).”
“In 1999, Joel Lloyd Bellenson and Dexter Smith began to think about how to store and reproduce the smells. They first worked to create a database of smells and then they created the device that would connect to the PC, the iSmell. DigiScents developed a computer peripheral device called iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer, which was designed to emit a smell when a user visited a web site or opened an email. It was a small device that could be connected to a computer through a Universal serial bus (USB) port and powered using any ordinary electrical outlet. The device contained a cartridge with 128 "primary odors", which could be mixed to replicate natural and man-made odors. The appearance of the device was similar to that of a shark’s fin, with many holes lining the “fin” to release the various scents. Using a cartridge similar to a printer’s, it could synthesize and even create new smells by combining certain combinations of other scents.These newly created odors could be used to closely replicate common natural and manmade odors. The cartridges used also need to be swapped every so often once the scents inside are used up. Once partnered with websites and interactive media, the scents could be activated either automatically once a website was opened or manually. DigiScents had indexed thousands of common odors, which could be coded, digitized, and embedded into web pages or email. However, the product is no longer on the market and never generated substantial sales.”
“In 2013, Haruka Matsukura and a team of colleagues at Tokoyo University of Agriculture and Technology developed a display called the “smelling screen”. The smelling screen combines a digital display with four small fans, one at each corner of the display. Odor stored in tiny gel packets is emitted and blown parallel to the screen. By varying the speed and strength of each fan, an emitted odor is moved to a specific spot on the screen.”
Created in 2013, in Spain, by the Valencian engineer Raúl Porcar OLORAMA TECHNOLOGY seems to be another fascinating and successful venture to a more immersive experience by bringing the sense of smell into the game.
Are you familiar with the 4-D film format? Have you ever been to a movie theatre with a 4-D room? Basically, you watch a 2-D, or 3-D film combinded with various practical effects. Said practical effects could include synchronized motion seats and environmental effects such as water, wind, fog, scent, snow and more, to enhance the action on screen. This technology allows the film to be augmented and it provides an immersive multi-sensory cinematic experience. 4DX, developed by CJ 4DPLEX is a very successful example of this technology.
Sources:
Agapakis, Christina. “Smell-O-Vision.” Scientific American. November 12, 2012. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/oscillator/smell-o-vision/.
Brownlee, John. “A Brief History of Smell-O-Vision.” Wired. July 12, 2006. https://www.wired.com/2006/12/a-brief-history-2-2/.
Dirks, Tim. “The History of Film - The 1950s - The Cold War and Post-Classical Era - The Era of Epic Films and the Threat of Television.” amc filmsite. https://www.filmsite.org/50sintro2.html.
Epstein, Adam. “Do you smell that? Hollywood’s fantastic, failed attempts to make audiences smell and “feel” movies, from AromaRama to 4D.” Quartz. April 01, 2016. https://qz.com/649920/hollywoods-fantastic-failed-attempts-to-make-audiences-smell-and-feel-movies-from-aromarama-to-4d/.
Plafke, James. “Japanese smell-o-vision TV releases scents with per-pixel accuracy.” EXTREMETECH. March 29, 2013. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/152086-japanese-smell-o-vision-tv-releases-scents-with-per-pixel-accuracy.
Platt, Charles. “You’ve Got Smell!” Wired. January 11, 1999. https://www.wired.com/1999/11/digiscent/.
“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in Smell-O-Vision.” Lincoln Theatre. https://lincolntheatre.org/film/willy-wonka-and-chocolate-factory-smell-o-vision.
Wikipedia contributors, "Smell-O-Vision," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smell-O-Vision&oldid=958400019 (accessed June 17, 2020).
Wikipedia contributors, "Digital scent technology," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_scent_technology&oldid=956230931 (accessed June 17, 2020).