Stories

A selection of the smells

'ScentPallete' is a device that generates synthetic smells by blowing high pressured air onto paraffin waxes.

A distinctive odour is then emitted, with current 'flavours' ranging from the soothing waft of freshly cut grass – to the utterly foul stench of raw sewage.

Professor Bob Stone, who's heading up the project, believes that the technology could soon be used in conjunction with popular video game consoles – like the X-Box or Nintendo Wii.

"We're getting a lot of interest from games companies and games magazines around the world," he says. "I think within the next five years we'll see maybe smaller versions of this delivering specific smells for specific games."

Soldiers in a video game

At the moment, the 'ScentPalette' machine - essentially a metal box containing pots of different waxes - is being developed as a way of letting soldiers in training familiarise themselves with battlefield smells.

'Burning Electrical', 'Weapon Fire', 'Race Car Exhaust' and 'Diesel Exhaust' are some of the varieties on offer.

Yet with so many of today's video games – like 'Call Of Duty' and 'Half Life' – being based on real life combat scenarios, a smaller version of 'ScentPalette' could be used to enhance players' in-game experiences.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," said Bob. "The concept of smell is a difficult one in the sense that it's about familiarity. Most people know what cut grass smells like so would recognise that but not everyone knows about weapon fire. We've got the issue too of smells lingering for too long and how to deal with that."

Mark Blyth

Mark Blyth, a post-graduate student at the University of Birmingham, is also working on the project.

He says that the team are aware that parents may object to smell of rotting zombies wafting from a teenager's bedroom if they're playing the latest Playstation horror game.

"But there is a real educational aspect to the project too," says Mark.

"Games like 'Cooking Mama' (a cookery simulation game where players follow recipes to bake ingredients) could benefit where the player would be able to smell what they're making. The smell of burning toast for example could be a very useful way of teaching children what odours to be aware of."