Scent Wave is a single-scent dispenser, each unit holding and dispensing a single scent-stick. Using a dry-air technology that releases fragrance without sprays, aerosols or heated oils, Scent Wave is one of those systems that will work after being bunged in a cupboard for six months. Used primarily in retail environments, this system often finds use in large-scale VR such as military simulations and immersive training.

The original intent of the designers of the scent collar was to create an entirely virtual environment controlled, personal scent experience to augment the visual and auditory sensory immersion. It is worn round the neck, and has a number of scent cartridges attached to it.

Scent POP or Scent Point-of-Purchase is a small-scale scent emitter, designed primarilly for retail needs, although it can be employed as a smell emitter for large-scale virtual worlds.

The Symphony of Smell, A New Approach to the Sense
We have never truly succeeded at a VR scent interface. All those we have, bar none, physically release a scent into the room around the user, because we have never been able to grasp how the brain processes the sense of smell. A novel study tracing individual nerve firings with mice in controlled conditions, reveals that the actual organisation of the sense of smell is far more complex than we ever dreamed.

Scent Integration with VR: Determining Avatar's 'Age'
Surprisingly, we use the sence of smell every time we meet another person. For the subtle body odours our physical bodies emit, guide others as to our physical age, and provide cues on how to talk to us. As scent interfaces work their way into social VR systems, we need to give serious consideration to adding 'BO' to our avatars.

VR Interfaces: Sega VR
A look at the Sega VR, a head mounted display and fully immersive interface of the early 1990s, that somehow never quite managed to make it off the ground.

Scents and smells are ubiquitous, they are part of our everyday world. Yet, when you enter VR worlds, you almost always lose your sense of smell. Sight is covered, hearing is covered via speakers, even touch is covered via haptic gloves and other accessories. Smell usually remains abandoned, lacking hardware to cover it. The Scent Dome, manufactured by TrySenx inc, was the first serious attempt to create a smell peripheral.

Chemical Sensor as Sensitive as a Dog's Nose
A technological scent sensor that works in almost the exact same manner as a bog's biological nose has been developed by researchers at the University of California. The sensor, the size of an adult male fingerprint, uses microfluidic nanotechnology to mimic the biological mechanism behind canine scent receptors. The device is both highly sensitive to trace amounts of certain vapour molecules, and able to tell a specific substance apart from similar molecules.

Virtual-Reality Program Recreates Traumatic Memory
An innovative project at Tripler Army Medical Centre utilises an immersive virtual reality interface to take patients back to the war zones they experienced, to treat their battlefield stress.

Scent as a Communication Channel Physically and in VR?
In a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researcher Gün Semin and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands have expressed interest in the use of pheromones for communication, in all animals including humans. They postulated that scents might actually be playing a role in how we subconsciously communicate, and their results do bear out that possibility. This means there is yet another potential use for scent in virtual environments – as a means for increasing the bandwidth of interpersonal communication.

(20/04/2007)
Motorola, manufacturer of mobile phone handsets, has sought and been granted a patent for adding scent capability to phone calls. Using a special, inbuilt cartridge, almost identical to the Scent Dome, a PC smell system, the proposed, paten...

(24/06/2004)
The new Micoy camera System has been created to make real-time immersive worlds such as Star Trek holodecks, a reality.

The system is basically a set of cameras, that recordd 360 degrees by 360 degrees - the entire sphere aro...

(07/06/2007)
MediaGrid.org is attempting to push forwards the cause of using both immersive and non-immersive interactive virtual environments for educational purposes.

They have launched an open call to educators, students and profession...

(08/04/2009)
CSIRO says remote telerobotics is not science fiction, and it has created an immersive version of the technology to help Rio Tinto break rocks.

Telerobotics involves a human being remotely operating a robotically-wired piece ...

(29/09/2003)
Japanese engineers have developed a display technology with detail so fine, the human eye struggles to find any difference from reality.

Inventing corporation, Japan's NHK stated that the system could be used to provide an u...