Digital Scent Technology intends to change the interactive entertainment experience. The idea is to scent-enable movies, games, music, animation, or any digital media. Create a more immersive and captivating environment for your audience. Smell reaches out into a new, visceral dimension, transporting viewers, gamers, and music fans into the realm of the senses. Atmosphere, mood, emotion and characters can all be enhanced with scent.

The Power of Scent…

• makes content extremely immersive and compelling
• creates mood, such as foreshadowing or ambiance
• intensifies emotions, such as fear or love
• establishes place and season
• helps develop characters
• gives a heightened sense of reality

Why is this site here?

Why did you come here?  Most likely for one of two reasons.  You’re either part of the small percentage of people who think this is a great idea and would like to further discuss the research or you think this is some crackpot idea and wanted to see if it was serious or not?  I thought it would be a great place to discuss both sides of the technology, so I’ve posted related Press Releases from the past, and I’ll continue posting related articles and press releases in the future. 

So, what do you think, is this a great inovative feature to enhance your PC experience, or just another scam to get you to buy another accessory for your PC? Post a comment and let us know what you think!

Also, if you have a suggestion, article, related link, etc.  please let me know at blog@digiscents.com. 

Title: Digital scent movie projector with sound channel
Document Type and Number: United States Patent 20080043204
Kind Code: A1

Abstract:

A Digital Scent Movie Projector with Sound Channels. Its features include: A Digital Movie Projector, A sense of smell signal converter and a set of scent making devices. A digital movie projector uses a full frequency sound channel as its passageway to transmit sense of smell digital signal or adding a sense of smell digital signal transmission passageway besides the several full frequency and a low frequency sound channel. After being processed by the sense of smell signal converter the sense of smell signal is transmitted into the scent making devices. The scent making devices uses the scent transmission passageway to transmit the scent of the scent can into the pressure-reducing valve and sound muffler, with help of the air compressor and the controlling valve. And finally the scent is released into the cinema from the scent outlet devices installed under or by the audience seats. With this proposal and without any modification to a digital movie projector, the sense of smell signal can be programmed into digital movies and can be projected utilizing one of the full frequency sound channels of a digital movie projector. Therefore it enables the film arts to break the monopoly of traditional film and truly realizes the trinity enjoyable effect of sense of sight, hearing and smell.

Inventors: Guo, Yixin (Ronkonkoma, NY, US)
Application Number: 11/588154
Filing Date: 10/27/2006

More info can be found here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2008/0043204.html

“We started with a simple question,” said ScenTeck’s founder and chief scientist, Dr. Aarp Hriful, who, as chief engineer for Phillips, was also the innovator of “Ambilight” television light technology. “How can we heighten the average computer user’s online experience and maximize enjoyment?” The answer came from Dr. Hriful’s wife. “She had just come from the spa and remarked that she wished she could feel the way a spa environment makes her feel all the time. This started me thinking.”

Working with a special team of University scientists, the Germany-based Dr. Hriful dispatched his group of engineers to the Deep South, and began conducting spa-like aromatherapy tests on a series of office-based focus groups. “In every instance, when people were exposed to aromatherapy in the workplace, we noticed productivity rise, and workplace malaise decline,” said Hriful. “I asked my team to consider the possibilities of creating software that dispensed scent via hardware. Through trial and error, we concluded that it was possible.”

Hriful’s team developed a System Scent Card that reacts to normal auditory sensors generated from a computer’s hard drive. These sensors, once triggered, are combined with Hriful’s proprietary Scent Waves, and then broadcast from computer speakers, replacing the standard vibrating sound waves with a unique vibrating tone. “It’s an inaudible tone that asks the brain to recognize it, not as a sound, but as a scent,” said Hriful.

Since its release last February, more than a million people in the U.S. alone are enjoying fragrant ScenTeck scents such as Mountain Breeze, Passion Fruit and Patchouli, right at their home or office computer. “All you need is a personal computer or laptop, a set of computer speakers, and a System Scent Card. Then, just download the software at our Web site, and you can begin enjoying our fragrances through your computer speakers almost immediately.”

Due to anticipated demand, the Web site will be launched on a Sunday, April 1, rather than during the week. Scratch-N-Sniff Pro(TM) is available for download at www.scenteck.com.

Contact:
ScenTeck Technologies
Becci Hart, 205-776-2280

——————————————————————————–
Source: ScenTeck Technologies

Culver City, CA (PRWEB) March 22, 2007 — The future is here — welcome to the cyberbirth of Scenttv.tv. On March 27, 2007, Scenttv.tv, Inc. will launch its revolutionary Scented Web Broadcast Portal and from that day forward the global communications experience, as we have known it, will be forever changed. www.scenttv.tv delivers an enhanced “multi-sensory” digital experience by providing users the ability to smell content from the world-wide web. This historic event will introduce scent enabled content (SEC) and the ScentDomeTM.

Scenttv.tv Community of Users will be able to literally smell the scent enabled content of movies, games, music videos, educational curriculum, favorite television programs, aroma therapy sessions, their own personalized scented web pages with videos and commercial ads. Scenttv.tv Broadcast News Personalities will report realtime Bloggers News 24/7. In addition, creative individuals will be able to upload their own personal Aromasodes.

Years of inventive work that brought forth the ScentDomeTM and its related software solutions by Trisenx Holdings, Inc. and Elliott Technologies, as seen on Good Morning America, CNN and the Today Show, have culminated and is now the basis for Scenttv.tv.

Ellwood Ivey, Jr., CEO of Trisenx Holdings, Inc., said that the ScentDome’sTM Beta users included NASA Ames, Eastman Chemicals, Reckitt Benkiser, Pepsi, Quaker and Telewest Broadband. Mr. Ivey also informed that the ScentDomeTM was the recipient of the 2005 prestigious Frost & Sullivan Technology of the Year Award. He said recent issues of both TRENDS and Fortune magazines identified the digital scent category as a massive emerging market. After several Beta trials, Roy Schrum, Chief Technology Officer of Trisenx Holdings, Inc., is excited to inform that the ScentDomeTM is now ready for mass distribution!

Scenttv.tv, Inc.’s, COO, Bernetta Anderson, announced that Scenttv.tv and Trisenx Holdings have inked a long-term deal for Trisenx Holdings to provide proprietary hardware and software tools that make Scenttv.tv possible. She said, Scenttv.tv is extremely excited to offer this unique marketing experience to advertisers and users alike. We are the first in the world to do it! Ms. Anderson said this category is poised to change media as we have known it. She said Magicloon and Scentfunix Tv of Atlanta, GA have already secured channels on Scenttv.tv and that Scenttv.tv is talking with several major content providers regarding launching their own channels.

Celia & Cedric Doughty, President and CEO, respectively, of Magicloon, Inc. and Scentfunix Tv, said their firm started developing content with multi-sensory dialog two years ago, anticipating the release of these digital scent technologies. Mrs. Doughty said, they are committed to providing young Scenttv.tv users with an enriched educational experience.    

According to Krishna Agaram Kannan, Scenttv.tv Chief Technology Officer, the Scenttv.tv interface was designed to be easy so users would not have a problem in using the tools. Ms. Agaram Kannan said she chose Annissa Roth Designs and E-Streams to build and manage the site. She believes this amazing multi-sensory technology, through Scenttv.tv, will empower the global connection.    

The site launches on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 and offers free registration to its Community of Users.

About Scenttv.tv, Inc.:
Scenttv.tv, founded December 2006, is the world’s first web 2.0 scent enabled broadcast portal.

About Trisenx Holdings, Inc.:Trisenx, founded in 1999, survived the Internet bubble deflation in 2001 to emerge as the global leader in providing end to end digital scent solutions for the new web 2.0 platform and product fullfillment.

For Further Information Contact:
Bernetta Anderson, gaadmin(at)scenttv.tv

For photos/white paper go to www.trisenx.com click on Media 1-800-845-8861

Scenttv.tv, Inc. is a US Corporation, Culver City , CA.

The first CD equipped with scent-technology is UNLEASHED by ZAN, who lives and records in Savannah. ZAN and her band play a mix of Pop, Funk Rock and New Age music.

“This is going to revolutionize the music industry,” said Eric L. Winbush, President & CEO of Savannah-based Dadd’s Production Inc. Winbush recorded and produced UNLEASHED for ZAN in his Southside Savannah studio. “When ZAN sings about flowers, you can actually smell the flowers. It’s like you’re in a flower-filled meadow,” Winbush said.

The company that invented the technology for ZAN’s scent-enabled CD is TriSenx Holdings Inc., also based in Savannah. TriSenx beat out a number of other research and development firms in a multimillion dollar race to create and patent the technology.

For the scent-enabled CD to work, one must purchase a Scent-Dome that plugs into a computer. As the computer plays songs, the teapot-sized Scent Dome releases different fragrances triggered by code embedded in the CD.

Winbush said, “You plug the Scent-Dome into your computer, pop in ZAN’s CD, and you’re in sensory heaven.”

TriSenx President & CEO Ellwood G. Ivey, Jr. has invited ZAN to tour the U.S. starting this Fall to promote UNLEASHED and the scent technology. It’s already received publicity in such media outlets as NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN’s Hotwired, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and Business Week. Partners of TriSenx include: NASA, Microsoft, Netscape and others.

The TriSenx/ZAN National Tour will feature around 20 concert dates. Many of the shows will be hosted by public school systems as part of a national essay contest on how smell influences learning. A tour schedule will be released this Fall.

ZAN’s album UNLEASHED is charting across the country, Winbush said. The album is in the Top Ten in markets in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Canada. She’s even cracked the major metropolitan markets of New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Montreal.

ZAN, who writes her own lyrics with some help from Winbush, says she draws off personal experiences for musical inspiration. She describes her sound as “HipaPop - Funk Rock - New Age.” Born in Lebanon, ZAN’s music has a Middle-Eastern influence. Winbush added guitar riffs and uptempo rhythms to her songs, and the result has been a charting record.

Sony has bought three of ZAN’s songs to use for video games and movies, and two others to use for television shows. You can listen and buy ZAN’s album UNLEASHED, as well as her first album 1 Of The Stars, by visiting CD Baby.

Dadd’s Production Inc. (www.DaddsProduction.com) is an independent record company based in Savannah, GA. Founded in 1992 by current President & CEO Eric “Runchy” Winbush, Dadd’s Production is a full-service recording label offering: Music and Lyric Writing; Recording, Mixing and Mastering; Booking, Staging and Tour Support; and CD Manufacturing, Pressing and Duplication. Winbush has toured with various musical acts as a producer and engineer, including The SOS Band, notable for popularizing the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine in popular music. Savannah musical artists signed with Dadd’s Production include: ZAN, Jimmy Brown, NET, and Jeanette Illidge.

TriSenx Holdings Inc. (www.Trisenx.com) is a research and development company based in Savannah, GA that specializes in multi-sensory technologies. Founded in 1999 by Ellwood Ivey, Jr., TriSenx’s mission is to develop multi-sensory products that enable digital olfactory diffusion, especially in the field of education. Its patent-protected technology is available for licensing in a variety of fields-of-use. For example, TriSenx’s Scent Dome ($369) is a computer peripheral device that releases different fragrances triggered by computer code embedded in such items as music CDs, Emails and Web pages.

International recording artist ZAN (www.sonicbids.com/zan) was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. After mastering the native arabic music of her country, ZAN moved to America where she could explore other musical styles. Luck paired ZAN with record producer Eric Winbush in 2000. The duo combined her arabic style with his mixed style to produce a Pop, Funk Rock, New Age sound. ZAN’s first album, 1 Of The Starz, was released in 2001. Her current album, UNLEASHED, is charting in the Top Ten across the U.S. and Canada in markets small to large

In an experiment that involved computer games and custom-made scents, researchers found that responses to new odors depended on emotions experienced while the new odor was present. If participants had a good time playing the game, they were more likely to report liking the odor they smelled. If they had an unpleasant experience, they were more likely to dislike the scent.

“As humans, we’re not immediately predisposed to respond to a scent and believe that it is good or bad,” said Rachel Herz, a visiting assistant professor of psychology at Brown and the lead scientist of the study. “Whether we like a smell or not is learned.”

Herz conducted two experiments to test her theory of olfaction. The first included 30 female participants. All were asked to smell five scents, infused in cotton in glass jars, and rate them on a 9-point scale for pleasantness, familiarity and intensity. Most odors were familiar and pleasant – rose, vanilla, lemon and peppermint. But one was new: a unique mix of odors that included dirt, rain and hot buttered popcorn. The result was a sweet, dank, slightly unpleasant scent. Partcipants rated these five odors before the experiment began and then several times after the emotional manipulation during the following week.

Participants were randomly assigned into groups. The experimental group entered a room where the new scent was dispersed in the air by a hidden machine. Then they played a computer game that was developed for this study. The game was rigged for fun, using humorous sound effects and smiling faces. This same group, in a later session, was shown a compilation of scenes from the comedy “Something About Mary.” Again, the strange scent was gently piped into the room.

Three control groups were used. The first group also played the game and watched the film, but no smell was present. The second group was exposed to the scent but watched neutral nature documentaries during both sessions. The third sat in an odorless waiting room with different magazines during the sessions.

The second experiment was similar, but it included 36 participants, both men and women, and tested two new scents. Half of the participants were exposed to a slightly floral scent, the others to a scent with a clean, watery smell. The scents in this study were initally intended to be unfamilar and pleasant.

Then one group entered a room scented with one of the novel pleasant smells and played a computer game that was designed to be frustrating and given annoying sound effects. The second group sat in a scented room and read magazines. The third group played the computer game in an odorless room. As in the first study, particants rated the novel odor and the four familiar, pleseant smells before the experiment began and then several times after the emotional manipulation took place during the course of one week.

The results: In the first experiment, Herz found participants who played the game and watched the film clips rated the new odor as more acceptable and familiar than the control groups. Results were similar in the second experiment. After playing the frustrating game, participants were more likely than control groups to score the pleasing new odors as distasteful. In both experiments, the changes in odor perception were seen to last at least one week.

Bottom line: When an odor is paired with an emotional event, perception of that odor was altered to fit that association.

Herz wasn’t surprised. Little rigorous data exists, Herz said, to back a genetic theory of odor and perception. Herz said cultural studies of olfaction also back her results. Americans, for example, tend to like the smell of wintergreen, a common ingredient in candy and gum. Yet in Britain, where wintergreen is often used to make medicine, the odor is less pleasing.

“We can see that this is true from personal experience, as well,” Herz said. “Some people may smell a rose and be reminded of their father’s funeral. Others may like the smell of skunk because they have a positive attachment to it from childhood.”

Herz said there are a few exceptions to this theory. Irritating odors, such as ammonia, may be immediately disliked when smelled. Individual genetic differences may also play a role in inherent liking responses to odors.

Herz said the study adds to science’s mounting understanding of olfaction. Results, however, may also be of interest to marketers. Herz said retailers and restaurateurs want to offer a pleasant experience. A small but growing group, Herz said, use signature scents to create a positive association with consumers. “Using odor to improve mood has industrial applications,” she said. “Scent could even be used in schools or hospitals to improve performance or speed recovery.”

Herz conducted the experiments with the assistance of Sophia Beland, a former research assistant at Brown, and Margaret Hellerstein, a former Brown undergraduate. Oakland Innovation, a British consulting firm, funded the research.

Cable company Telewest Broadband is currently testing new technology that brings a third sense to the internet, allowing you to send and receive any number of weird and wonderful aromas whilst surfing the net.

Smell the love…
Looking for love? Then take a deep breath as online dating takes a new turn. When seeking a new date on the net, you can now check to see if the object of your desire is more Calvin Klein than Brut 33, with personalised email scents to reflect your mood or personality.

The revolutionary technology works in conjunction with a high-speed, broadband internet connection, enabling people to send and receive codes to special ’scent domes,’ which mix liquid smells and spray them into the air around the PC. Even online shopping services benefit with the added dimension of smell.

All you need to do is plug in one of the unique domes, just as you would a printer or scanner, and a whole new nasal experience awaits. Other potential ScentMail applications could include…

1. Holidays
Smell the sea and suntan lotion while taking a virtual tour of your chosen destination

2. Online groceries
Wafts of fresh bread and fruit tantalise your taste buds as you make your way around the e-supermarket

3. Horse racing
Smell the turf as the 3:15 at Doncaster thunders past on your PC screen

4. Aromatherapy
De-stress and unwind with your PC

5. Jazz club
Savour the atmospheric smells of whisky and cigars while you enjoy the music from home

Kate Fox, social anthropologist, commented, “By adding a third sense to the internet Telewest Broadband is helping to ‘humanize’ cyberspace – using ground breaking technology to re-create more primitive forms of communication.

“The association of fragrance and emotion is not an invention of poets or perfume-makers. Our sense of smell is directly connected to our emotions - smells trigger very powerful and deep-seated emotional responses, and this additional element to the internet will enhance users’ online experience by adding that crucial third dimension.”

Telewest Broadband has created the UK’s first ‘ScentMail’ or ‘Aromanet’ facility in Area 15, its experimental research and development facility at its Woking headquarters.

Initially, each scent dome contains 20 aromas that can be mixed to produce up to 60 different smells but up to 2,000 scents could be available in the future.

Chad Raube, director of internet services at Telewest Broadband, said: “This could bring an extra whiff of realism to the internet. We are always looking at ways to enhance the broadband internet experience of the future and this time we are sure consumers will come up smelling of roses.”

Within seconds of sending a fragrance from Dr. Wallace’s computer, the
AromaJet Kiosk received the data required for it to create the aroma. A
description of the fragrance was sent and displayed to AromaJet engineers in
Plano asking if they wanted to accept it. After accepting the fragrance, the
kiosk immediately generated the scent from a given set of ingredients, using
AromaJet’s patented aroma generation hardware & software.

AromaJet is currently developing products that use 16 ingredients to generate
aromas. Systems with 32 components and beyond are planned for the near
future. All of AromaJet’s systems will be designed to operate interactively
over the Internet using IPsmell(TM) technology.

In the past, custom perfumes were only possible for the “rich and famous”.
Fragrance design was limited to experienced perfumers with access to
ingredients, know-how, and a laboratory. AromaJet technology will change all
this.

In the future, a fragrance synthesizing system, such as the one used in this
demonstration, will allow a renowned perfumer in Paris, France to work
directly with a customer in Santa Fe, New Mexico to develop a fragrance
tailored to her desires. Once the formula is identified, the custom perfume can
be mixed, bottled, and shipped directly to the customer in Santa Fe the next
day.

AromaJet’s fragrance synthesizing ability and internet compatible system will
also enable fragrance companies, perfume companies and consumer product
companies to interact easily with one another and with their customers.
Getting closer to the customer using digital aroma generation technology will
alter the dynamics of the marketplace.

AromaJet.com, a technology spin-off of MicroFab Technologies, Inc., is a
product development company dedicated to the advancement and
commercialization of digital aroma generation. The company has offices in
Plano, Texas, USA, which it shares with its 16-year-old parent company.