The sweet smell of startup success

Numerous attempts have been made to simulate scents through technology, but one company believes it has found a solution that can be used for both entertainment and military purposes.

By DAVID SHAMAH
'Scent is really the strongest of the senses.' (photo credit: Creative Commons)
'Scent is really the strongest of the senses.'
(photo credit: Creative Commons)
There have been a lot of great advances in movie technology, but one that never quite made it was Smell-O-Vision – which tried to give audiences the ability to actually experience with their noses what their eyes saw and their ears heard. Which is a pity, says Sigal Sela of Israel’s Scentcom.
“Scent is really the strongest of the senses. Even when a person hasn’t eaten for days and is ravenously hungry, he still won’t eat food that smells bad,” she says.
And while previous attempts at odor technology haven’t quite made the grade, Sela and Scentcom CEO Yossi Haran say they have come with a technology that will finally bring scent to a host of applications – movies, TV shows, video games, music, cars, even medical and military training – allowing for a more realistic, memorable and fun experience.
Scent technology is actually being used more than you probably realize. Not at the movies, but in stores, malls and products. Everyone knows about “new car smell,” but few realize that it’s not just the natural emission of odors from the new car’s materials – it’s actually a “branded product,” which dealers spray in the car before delivering it to the buyer. With “new car smell” spray (which you can actually buy in auto supply stores!), customers not only “know” that they’re getting a new product, they “feel” it – associating the scent with the feelings of success and happiness that accompany the experience of getting a new car.
Auto dealers aren’t the only ones using artificial odors, says Sela; many stores in the mall have a “branded” scent, which they want customers to associate with their stores.
“It goes right to the emotional center,” says Sela, and the association puts customers into a buying mood. “Scent is the most important technology for first impressions, and has perhaps the biggest impact on memories and emotions. We want to bring odor technology to the next level, to turn it into a multimedia experience.”
One reason scent hasn’t graduated to that next level is that odor technology is “static,” applied once and forgotten, as opposed to dynamic, with odors being released at the exact moment they’re needed.
“It’s not been for a lack of trying,” says Sela. “Over the past decade and a half, a number of technologies have been developed for dynamic odor release, but they have all failed, because they were not accurate.”
It was that inaccuracy that killed Smell-OVision in the theaters, as patrons complained that the odors were released too late and didn’t line up with the picture, or that they were too overwhelming.
Scentcom has solved that problem, says Sela. “We developed our product based on ultrasonic nebulization technology, used in the medical field, combined with a blending and sealing technology.”
The Scentcom digital scent device has odoremitting materials built in, which are “mixed” using a sophisticated program to create the specific scent desired. The scents are delivered at the appropriate time – triggered by a specific event in the program, for example – using a built-in scent emitter. The odors themselves are generated by a set of scent cartridge refills (“like ink cartridges,” says Sela) comprising premixed and mixable scents that are dedicated to a specific media category, as well as customized cartridges designed and produced on demand for specific applications.
The whole thing is controlled by Scentcom’s SDK, which allows developers to integrate the scent technology with an application. For example, Scentcom’s device could be plugged into (or built into) a video console, with an odor released “on event” – so if the on-screen character finds him- or herself at the beach, the Scentcom device would release an odor evoking sand and surf. The scent is released at exactly the right time because it is a part of the actual gaming app – just like any of the sounds or sights onscreen.
“We have various integration methods for existing products, and we are working with a number of companies on building our product right into their devices,” Sela adds.
The system can be deployed in a variety of sizes and shapes, so it’s appropriate for toys, cell phones, music players and a slew of other devices.
Haran says he expects the first consumer products using Scentcom technology to be on the market by next year. But one project that will come on line much sooner – in the coming months – is a pilot program Scentcom is developing for a defense organization (Haran wouldn’t say which) for medical battlefield training.
“Today there are real-life simulators that enable doctors and medics to reenact actual battlefield conditions and situations,” he says. “For example, you have simulators that can allow trainees to work on various techniques, such as operating on wounds, doing surgery on major organs, etc.” The simulators are quite realistic, with materials that evoke the “real thing,” like blood or burnt hair.
But one thing that has been missing from simulators has been odor, and Haran says that US researchers have found that lack of scent is a major problem for medical training programs.
“They found that 20 percent of field medical personnel in Iraq performed worse than expected based on their training scores, and researchers determined that the lack of odors associated with the battlefield, which they experienced in the field but not in training, was a major factor in those training issues,” he explains. With Scentcom’s technology, medical training programs can close that gap.
But Scentcom has its eye (or nose?) on the consumer market.
“We got involved in this because we had worked with a startup associated with the Weizmann Institute that was developing a game with scent,” says Sela. “We think there is a huge market here, and we believe our technology will finally integrate scent with advanced technology.”