ABSTRACT

Until now, online communication involved only two of our senses, sense of sight
& sense of hearing. Soon it will involve the third, the sense of smell using a nose.
Digital scent technology is the main application of e-nose. With digital scent
technology, it is possible to sense, transmit & receive smell through internet.
There is complete software and hardware solution for it. When applied to
communications, scent becomes a new information channel. It allows us to
perceive products and irate a previously unimagined emotionality and product
credibility. Scents extend the myriad of multimedia possibility towards a new
level. Scent communication will be one of the most important information tools
of the future.

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 INTRODUCTION

1.1 ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

Until now online communication involved only two of our senses, sense of
hearing and sense of sight. Soon it will involve the third, the sense of smell.
Anew technology is being developed to appeal to our sense of smell. Bringing
alive our experience, technology now targets on the sense of smell.
Using Electronic-nose we can sense a smell and with a technology called
Digital scent technology it is possible to sense, transmit and receive smell through
internet, like smelling a perfume online before buying them, sent scented E-cards
through scent enabled websites, and to experience the burning smell of rubber in
your favorite TV games etc.
If this technology gains mass appeal no one can stop it from entering into
virtual world. Just imagine you are able to smell things using a device connected
to your computer. With Digital scent technology this can be made a reality. There
is complete software and hardware solution for scenting digital media and user.

1.2. PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SMELL

Before we describe the possibilities of olfactory displays, we should take a glance
at the physiological aspects of smell. How does the nose work and what is its
function? Naturally we can breath, smell and additionally taste with our nose.
First of all we are interested in the anatomy of the nose.
Odor consists of many different molecules, for e.g. the aroma of coffee is
made up of 20 various molecules. Nonetheless our nose perceives only 15 odors
which is enough to identify the smell as coffee.

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 At first the odor molecules reach the olfactory mucosa. The receptors for the
molecules are placed at the olfactory hairs. When the molecules reach the
receptors, an electric impulse is sent directly to the brain to the olfactory bulb.
Then the information gets to the olfactory glomeruli, a part of the olfactory bulb.
The glomeruli is able to associate the information to the intensity. The olfactory
bulb consequently processes the odor and can send the impulse to the olfactory
brain. We notice that we have a direct connection between our sense of smelling
and our brain. Those scent impulses reach the area of our brain that handles
emotions and memories. That explains the link between smelling and being
reminded of something.
We percept smell very individually. Every human perceive a difference
between a pleasant and unpleasant odor. Humans are not capable to distinguish
odors in terms of intensity. Roughly we can only distinguish between three
concentrations of some odor whereas we should actually be able to
differentiate1000types of odors. Another problem for olfactory display is the fast
acclimatization of humans to scents.
What makes it even more difficult to construct olfactory display is that a set
of primary odors has not really been found. There was an attempt to define seven
such of primary odors but had to be extended to 100 odors. For vision, three base
colors are sufficient to display any color. Unfortunately this cannot be applied to
olfaction as our nose has thousands of receptors and apart from that the odors are
not orthogonal. That means you will not necessarily get a new one by mixing two
odors. Due to these big problems there is still research in examining our scent.

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 ELECTRONIC NOSE

2.1 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF E-NOSE

An electronic nose can be a modular system comprising of active materials which

operate serially on an odorant sample. These active materials can be classified
into two: an array of gas sensors and a signal processing system.

The output of the electronic nose can be the identification of the odorant,
an estimation of the concentration of the odorant or the characteristic of the odor
as might be perceived by the human.

Fundamental of artificial nose is that each sensor in the array has different
sensitivity. The pattern of response across the sensors is distinct for different
odors. The distinguishably allows the system to identify the unknown odor from
the pattern of sensor responses. The pattern of response across all the sensors in
the array is used to identify the odor. Different e-noses use different types of gas
sensors which form heart of e-nose.

2.2 SENSING AN ORDANT

In a typical e-nose, an air sample is pulled by a vacuum pump through tube into a
small chamber housing the electronic sensor array. Next the sample planning
units exposes the sensor to the ordant, producing a transient response as the
VOC’s interact with the surface and bulk of sensor’s machine, a steady stste
condition is reached in a few seconds to a few minutes.

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 During this interval, the sensor’s response is recorded and delivered to the
signal processing unit. Then a washing gas such as alcoholic vapor is applied to
the array so as to remove the odorant mixture from the surface and bulk of
sensor’s active material. Finally a reference gas is again applied to the array
toprepare it for new measurement cycle. The period during which odorant is
applied is called the response time of the sensor array. The period during which
washing and reference gases are applied is called the recovery time.

The sensor’s response is converted into electronic signal by using a

transducer and is processed by using the signal processing unit.

2.3 TYPES OF SENSORS

2.3.1 POLYMER SENSORS

The working of polymer sensors is based on the change in conductivity of the

polymer when the ordant is applied. Response time is inversely proportional to
the polymer thickness. The main drawback of this method is that it is difficult and
time consuming to electro polymerize the active material, so the exibit
undesirable variations from one batch to another.

2.3.2 QUARTZ SENSOR

The vibration of the quartz is changed by a contact between the molecules and
the surface. The response and recovery times are minimized by reducing the size

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and mass of quartz crystal along with the thickness of the polymer coating. The
main disadvantage is that they have more complex electronics than of polymer
sensors.

2.3.4 MOSFET SENSORS

These are based on the principle that VOCs in contact with a catalyst metal can
produce a reaction on the metal. The reaction products can diffuse through the
gate og the MOSFET to change the electrical properties of the device. The
sensitivity and selectivity of the device can be optimized by varying the type and
thickness of the metal catalyst and operating them at different temperatures. The
advantage is that they can be made with IC fabrication so that batch to batch
variations can be minimized.

2.3.4 OPTICAL FIBRE SENSORS

A light source of single frequency is used to interrogate the active material, which
in turn responds with color change in the presence of VOCs to be detected and
measured. The active material contains chemically active fluorescent dyes
immobilized in an organic polymer matrix. As VOCs interact with it, polarity of
the fluorescent dyes is altered and they respond by shifting their fluorescent
emission spectrum.

The sensors are cheap and easy to fabricate. The disadvantage is that
fluorescent dyes are slowly consumed by sensing process.

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 3.DIGITAL SCENT COMMUNICATION

3.1 COMMUNICATION MODEL

Chemical
makeup Primary
ordor
Scent digitizing 101011
index
Detected
Scent scent
spectrum

Scent bus

Fig 3.1.1
The e-nose detects the smell molecules and it is indexed based on two
parameters. The scent is indexed according to its chemical makeup and its place
in the scent spectrum. The chemical makeup can be detected by the electronic
nose which otherwise act as the receiver. Like the color spectrum, there is also
scent spectrum and any smell will be the indexed smell of primary smells in the
scent spectrum. The indexed scent is digitized into a small file by olfactory signal
processing. This file is sent as an attachment to the recipient’s computer. At the
receiving end, there will be a personal scent synthesizer and air cannon. The
personal scent synthesizer reproduces the smell and the air cannon direct the
smell to user’s nose. The data about the smell is given by the digitally encoded
file which is transmitted. The smell emitted will be in the form of vapors.

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3.2 SCENT SYNTHESIZERS
Scent synthesizers are devices which are used to generate the smell in
accordance with the digitized file that is transmitted through the web. The scent
synthesizers are interfaced with our PC through a USB port. It can be
programmed or installed and it generates a small quantity of smell vapors into the
surrounding that is enough to feel the smell. All scent synthesizers will have are
movable cartridge which is used to mix different primary odors in different scent
synthesizers. Digi scent is the company which identified the most number of
primary scents about 128 primaries and they could create up to 1000 smells using
these primaries.

3.2.1 CATRIDGE USED IN PERSONAL SYNTHESIZERS

The personal synthesizers that produces the desired smell has a cartridge inside it
which is disposable as the chemical inside it wear out. Different types of
cartridges are manufactured according to the primary smells it can contain.
There will be 19 types of smell creating chemicals in the cartridge and by
using different proportions of these smells we can create many secondary smells.
The principle of operation of each cartridge is the same.
The cartridge use direct molecular heating or static heating technology. The
cartridge shown below has a container whose sides are made up of glass plate.The
electrodes can be arranged as follows.
There is a common cathode which is situated at the bottom. The container
has 19 partitions and separate anodes are dipped into each partition. The
electrolytes taken in each separate partition are chemicals which could produce
the primary smells. The chemicals are either derived from bacteria or from plants.
These electrolytes contain those odor molecules which could lock with the

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proteins triggering the neuron, which sends a signal that the brain recognizes the
smell.

Fig 3.2.1.1

These chemicals are partially conducting. Also electrolytic heating of these

chemicals is used here. All electrolytes should be heated simultaneously. When
dc voltage is given across the electrodes the electrolyte will start to get heated.
According to the different anode voltages applied across each anode, the
electrolyte get heated differently and the heated electrolyte from each chamber
produces different volatile molecules in different proportions to give different
smells. The amount of heating is restricted by the current flow through the anode
which is in accordance with the data file encoded about the particular scent. The

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different primary smell proportions produced by different chambers are combined
to give a particular smell.

3.3 AIR CANON

One of the problems of olfactory display is that users would have to wear
something on their faces to smell the odor. The air cannon will help us to solve
this problem. Air canon is used to transport the scented air directly to the user’s
nose without the help of any head mounted device. The user and the air cannon
are standing in a remote position and the scent is aimed at the user. The distance
between the user and the air cannon is about 1-2m. The user can freely move. The
air cannon aim directly at the user’s nose. The odor will not simply diffuse into a
room. This prevents that everyone staying in the room from smelling as the target
person notices the odor. This way directed delivery of scent is provided with a
device that is located on your table, not on your head.
The air cannon consist of
1. Face tracker
2. Air clump launcher
3. Scent generator
The ATR Media Information Science Laboratories developed 3 prototype
systems of air cannon.

3.3.1 FIRST PROTOTYPE

It is simply an elementary electromechanically driven air cannon equipped with a
scent generator. It consists of an acrylic box, a scent diffuser and an air pump.
The acrylic box is endowed with an aperture at the front and a rubber membrane
at the back. The rubber membrane is pushed by two solenoids in parallel. The

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scented air is injected near the aperture so that the injected air could be
immediately launched from the aperture.

FIG 3.3.1.1
Using this prototype, we could display the scent to a restricted are approximately
1m away from the air cannon. The scent is recognized only by the target user.

3.3.2 SECOND PROTOTYPE

A vision based nose tracker was used to detect and track the target user’s
nose position. After detecting the position of both the eyes, the nose position was
detected by searching for the brightest spot within the estimated region in which
the nose exists. Once the nose position was detected, the system traces the nose
position by template matching and finding the brightest spot.
An ELMO QN 42H micro CCD camera is used for image capturing. The camera
was placed just above the air cannon. The nose tracker could trace the nose
position at video rate, i.e. 30 times per second.

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 Fig 3.3.2.1

The detected nose position was then converted to the desired orientation of
the air cannon, which is fed to the motor driver. The platform that carries the air
cannon has 2 degrees of freedom and is equipped with a dc motor and a
potentiometer for each axis. The rotation speed was 60 degree per second for pan
and 75 degree per second for tilt when driven at the rated control voltage. The
outputs of potentiometers are used for position control at the motor drivers. With
this configuration, the air cannon could continuously trace the nose of the seated
user, even if he moved his upper body.
The design of second prototype is nearly equivalent to that of first, except that
the driving unit replaces the loud speaker used. This change was intended to
suppress the sound when the solenoids impacted the plate attached to the rubber

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membrane. The scent generator is also same as the first. The operator activates
the scent generator before he launches the clump of scented air.

3.3.3 THIRD PROTOTYPE

A scent switching mechanism is incorporated in the third prototype system. In the
previous prototypes, we could present only a single kind of scent to the user
because some portion of scented air diffuse into the air cannon body, where it was
difficult to eliminate previously injected scent.

To solve this problem, they attached a short cylinder with the same diameter
as the aperture of the air cannon and equipped with mechanical shutters at both
the ends. There are 5 holes on the surface of the cylinder for air intake and
evacuation. A tube is connected to each hole, through an air valve to a pump.
There is also a valve on the body of the air cannon for intake of fresh air.

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 FIG 3.3.3.1
The body of air cannon is composed of a bellows so that it can generate a
larger volume change for its entire size. A stepping motor is used to drive the
crank for pushing the bellows.
The system is also equipped with 2-degrees of freedom platform and a CCD
camera. The pumps and valves are controlled through controller units that
communicate with the PC via an RS232C communication line.

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 APPLICATIONS

APPLICATIONS FOR SCENT ON THE WEB

In addition to revolutionizing gaming, digital scent technology will bring
consumers more lifelike and memorable experiences with scented movies and
music, websites, e-mail, e-commerce and online advertising.

E-COMMERCE
Scent will bring the online shopping experience to life. Scent-enabled shopping
sites will be more compelling if you can actually smell perfumes, flowers, food
and beverages, cigars and exotic place.

ADVERTISING

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Vendors of food, cosmetics, home care products and travel related service scan
use scent to make advertisements more engaging and memorable. Eventually, like
musical jingles and graphical logos, scented banner ads will make it possible to
communicate the key feature of scented products or to simply evoke a certain
feeling.

COMMUNICATIONS
Scent offers developers as well as consumers another medium for creativity and
self-expression. For e.g.- scented websites, electronic greeting cards and e-mail.
With smell technology you can travel anywhere in the world or to any time period
in the past.

EDUCATION
Scent is an effective teaching tool for subjects such as Geography, History and
Sciences. With digital scent technology, you can travel anywhere in the world or
to any time period in the past.

MEDICINE
Aromatherapy is a kind of curing certain diseases by using different types of
smell. It helps in identifying dementing brain disorders including Huntington’s
and Parkinson’s and for differentiating them from other mental disorders. This
method is based on detecting the olfactory defaults that are diagnostic of the
dementing diseases.

ENTERTAINMENT

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Scent will make music, movies and interactive games life like and immersive.
Scent tracks will be synchronized with movies, much liked musical score and
sound track, in order to create foreshadowing and to establish atmosphere, mood,
sense of place and character.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES
It can be used without fall over hours, days, weeks and even months and can even
circumvent problems associated with the use of human panels such as individual
variability, adoption, fatigue mental state and exposure to hazardous material. The
e-nose is a compact device and so it is portable and reliability is very high. It can
identify simple molecules which cannot be accomplished by human nose. It can
identify a smell objectively.

DISADVANTAGES
There are a few disadvantages to the e-nose technology which includes price.
The cost of an e-nose ranges from $5000 to $100,000. Another

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disadvantage has been the delay between successive tests, the time delay ranging
between 2 to 10 minutes during which time; the sensor is to be washed by a
reactivating agent, which is applied to the array so as to remove the odorant
mixture from the surface and bulk of the sensors active material.

FUTURE WORK

They proposed a naval configuration of an olfactory display that does not require
user’s to put anything on the face and that localizes the effective space of the
displayed scent. The technical key to realizing this concept is to transfer a clump
of scented air from a place near the nose, and we confirmed that this is possible
by using air cannon. The constructed prototype system successfully displayed the
scent to the target user, even if the user moved his head.

They are going to propose another choice in methods to enjoy scent in

interactive applications. The wider the variety of olfactory displays, the wider the
variety of applications will emerge to make our VR experience rich and realistic.
Improvement of scent generation is necessary to extend the variety of
displayed scent and we can learn a lot from preceding research efforts on scent

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blending and generation. Also precise theoretical analysis of a tropical vortex
might be effective for optimal design of the air cannon. They are planning a step
by step in order to construct a transparent, easy to use olfactory display system.

CONCLUSION

New medium in the world of communication: scent. Scents have an immediate

and compelling effect. They touch our soul, consciously or unconsciously, and
allow us to fell deeply. Scents are unambiguous and unmistakable. The
integration of all the senses, in how we create and imagine the universe of goods,
is becoming more important. The consumer is always searching for experiences.
Enter into a new form of dialogue with your customers. Offer him a cache of new
impulses to purchase, through the power of scent.
When applied to communication, scent becomes a new information channel.
It allows us to perceive products and create a previously unimagined emotionality
and product credibility. At the same time seeing and hearing, scents extend the

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myriad of multimedia possibilities to a new level? Scent communication will be
one of the most important information tools of future.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_nose.
[2] http://www.digitaldreams-si.com/what-is-digital-scent-technology/
[3] http://www.scribd.com/doc/6775979/Enose

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