Want to smell youronline date before you meet them? There’s an app for that. Or at least, there will be one day.
Of the five senses, Sight (vision), hearing (audition), taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and touch (somatosensation - say that five times fast!) - only two, vision and audition, are available via the internet. Which means that when we date online, the only sense we get of someone besides their willingness to put kisses at the end x of x every xx message xx they send xx or respond 'lol whats up' even after you've already told them what is up, is what they look like and, perhaps if we dare broach voice note territory that early on, what they sound like.
However, some bright sparks have come up with a way of fixing that, by enabling us to smell one another before we go on a date,
Researchers from Malaysia’s Imagineering Institute - which sounds a lot like something that Willy Wonka might have in a far-flung corner of his chocolate factory - have found that ‘electric smell’ tech could send odours across our WIFI alongside sights and sounds.
Adrian Cheok, one of the scientists behind the research, and a professor at City University, London, told NBC: ‘It’s not just about the smell,’
‘It is part of a whole, integrated virtual reality or augmented reality. So, for example, you could have a virtual dinner with your friend through the internet. You can see them in 3D and also share a glass of wine together.’
Digital wine? Or real wine? We might need some clarification. Anyway, back to the whiffy matter at hand.
In the experiments, researchers used electrodes in the nostrils of some 31 test subjects (we hope they were cleaned in-between tests) to deliver weak electrical currents above and behind the nostrils, to stimulate the nerve cells that are normally stimulated when we smell a natural smell. By pressing the right buttons - figuratively - inside the nostrils, 10 odours, including fruity, woody and minty, could be sent to the test subjects’ nose.
It’s all a bit early days - we’ve got used to plonking earphones into our ears, but who really wants to shove an electrode into their nose? And Cheok said as much: ’This stage was more exploratory,’ before adding: ’The next stage is to produce it in a more controlled manner, and this will allow for people to develop software and products to generate electric smell’
The hope? Well, in 15 years, pre-programmed odours for films (such as the smell of burning rubber during a car chase, yum!) should be available, predicts Cheok. Let’s guess, then, that sending smells via dating apps is 30 years off. In that case, this writer will be 60 years old before the concept of smelling a new Tinder match on a hungover Sunday morning. And the prospect of an unsuccessful chat-up line resulting in a poo-smell being sent across the airwaves? Well, it seems a lifetime away, which smells very good to me.