We’re accustomed to seeing and hearing the media we consume, sometimes even feeling it, but what about the ability to smell your media? “Smell-O-Vision” might not just be a joke anymore, as Kyoto-based tech startup Aromajoin showed of their “AromaPlayer” wearable at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
The AromaPlayer is a gadget that rests on the user’s shoulders, hanging around the neck, and uses small replaceable cartridges to shoot smells up to your nose. What kinds of smells? Delightful fruity aromas like banana and coconut, baking bread, and more esoteric smells like desert rain or burning rubber. The AromaPlayer is fully programmable to be used with any YouTube video, or videos from your own library. The parameters that are programmable include exactly what second in a video that a smell is triggered, which smell, and even functionality for multiple smells at once.
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The smells emitting from the device stays in a small bubble on the user, meaning that you shouldn’t be bothering anyone else in the room with your aromatic adventures. In an interview with TechCrunch, Aromajoin CEO Dong Wook Kim stated “Our technology gives a controllable smell, and with AromaShooter, you can choose the direction of the aromas. They can be timed to 0.1 second accuracy, and you sync them with music or videos.”
The AromaPlayer can connect to most smart devices via Bluetooth connection. A demo is currently available at aromaplayer.com, and while pricing and availability hasn’t been announced, Aromajoin says that the AromaPlayer will be available “soon.”
