‘Sound Perfume’ Glasses Produce Your Own Sound and Smell
Now you can have your own personal smell. A team from Keio University in Tokyo and the National University of Singapore have developed a pair of glasses that have speakers and scent emitters to give users their own unique calling card.
The Sound Perfume system is designed so that users will have their own personal smell and sound to present when meeting new people. The pair of glasses is fitted with speakers and odor emitters behind the ears. There are eight different perfumes in hard blocks that are heated by a wire to 46° C which releases the aroma. The glasses are connected via Bluetooth to a smart phone. The user can control the sound and odor through a smart phone app.
When the user meets someone else wearing Sound Perfume infrared sensors will alert the user and send the user's personal information like their name, contact number and sound/smell preference to the other user. Their smart phone will then trigger the sound and smell preference in their Sound Perfume glasses. When the two users meet again Sound Perfume will regenerate the same sound and smell information.
The concept behind Sound Perfume is that sound and smells aids in the impression of one another. These two senses can generate stronger emotional feelings than mere words and even awaken long forgotten memories. Associating sound and smell with a person will make it easier to remember one person.
Yongsoon Choi and his team from NUS tested the system on 52 people and found that using the system helped create a good first impression. "They seemed to enjoy the new stimuli and diverse information during face-to-face interaction," he told New Scientist. Choi and his team are now looking at developing more Sound Perfume accessories, which is great for the more fashion conscious who might not want to wear the odd looking white glasses.
Choi presented the research at the Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, last month.