Are You Ready to Smell Your Games?

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Are You Ready to Smell Your Games?


Engineers at the University of Birmingham [http://www.bham.ac.uk/] are working on a new "smell effect" system that they hope will introduce a whole new level of immersion into videogaming.

The team is working on a system that uses aromatic paraffin wax placed into a boxed fan which is then connected to a PC and triggered by in-game events. But rather than gingerbread or mulberry vanilla, this wax features scents like "burning cordite," "racetrack rubber" and even "body odor."

"Smell is the most underrated sense, but next to vision is the most information-rich one we have," said Professor Bob Stone, who's heading up the "serious game" project. Development of the smell device is being funded in part by the U.K. Far Cry [http://www.mod.uk/] SDKs. The team eventually wants veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to become involved in the process in order to ensure the scents are as realistic as possible.

"It's a way of capturing feelings," said Mark Blyth, a PhD student and former member of the Royal Navy [http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/]. "Sometimes people have a sense that something is wrong, but we have to find out how they know that. Is it smell? Is it someone running through the marketplace? Is it the silence? If smell is one of the main factors then there is a lot of scope for this to be used to help train soldiers' noses."

At only $25 the scent device is relatively low-cost so bringing it to the commercial market should be relatively painless. On the other hand, do you really want to smell the poo soup you're treading through the next time a game drops you into a sewer level? I think that's a level of immersion I could live without.

Source: Develop [http://www.developmag.com/news/31750/Science-team-creating-smell-effect-peripheral]

(photo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/21626156@N02/2509246163/])

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Dr.Sean

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Apr 5, 2009
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Jesus Christ, I hope they don't do this for TF2 or Bioshock! I'd hate to smell those games.
 

blackcherry

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Apr 9, 2008
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Could be nice. But the question is would it be able to keep up with the varying different smells available in a level. Would it be able to do several at the same time, or just the prevalent?

Other than that, its one step closer to some sort of Virtual Reality, so I'm not knocking it.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Mmmmm...just think of the smell of Condemned.
Urine and blood. Fantastic! Some of the urine is your own. Outside of the game.

I wanna smell all the stuff in Shivering Isles. Probably be interesting.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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Seriously? This is just stupid.

Imagine the smell of a game like Dead Space. Why would you ever want to smell that?
 

Hatchling

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Apr 25, 2009
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They should have had that when they made yoshi island all that fruit would smell great.
 

Lukeje

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Feb 6, 2008
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Didn't one of the Leisure Suit Larry games already do something similar? (obviously a lot more lo-tech).
 

IxionIndustries

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Mar 18, 2009
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Good lord, imagine if they did this with Zoo Tycoon, or World of Goo.

However, I do wonder what the hell a Zergling smells like... Hmmm..
 

Lios

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Oct 17, 2008
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Wasn't smell-o-vision in movie theatrics already attempted, and failed incredibly? I doubt it will be any better for games.
 

grinklehi

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Sep 10, 2008
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xmetatr0nx said:
i understand that smell is the closest sense tied to memory (this product will be used for some wicked advertising tricks if it becomes wide spread) but couldnt they have spent all those man hours doing something better? Im not sure when i wanted to "smell" the last game i was playing...not sure id fancy Left 4 Dead smell.
Ah, the smell of Boomer Bile in the morning... Well, it would wake me up more then my standard dose of coffee at least.

Ok, this could work for SOME games, but not ALL games. Shooters? Yes. RTS's? No (unless you smell ALL of that stuff, like Motor oil, sweat, blood, horses, gunpowder, ozone, Horse Dung, Trees, Tiberium Crystals, and the like).
 

Joselyn

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Dr.Sean said:
Jesus Christ, I hope they don't do this for TF2 or Bioshock! I'd hate to smell those games.
Lmao...good answer that's what I thinking...:D
Some virtual experiences are best not smelled .....
 

ZeroMachine

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Oct 11, 2008
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Imagine the smell of the you-know-what mountain in Conker's Bad Fur Day... *shiver*

EDIT: On another note, I'm sure many gamers have wondered what perfumes Samus Aran or Lara Croft use... or maybe if after all that adventuring Link eventually starts to get a little funky.
 

Doug

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Dr.Sean said:
Jesus Christ, I hope they don't do this for TF2 or Bioshock! I'd hate to smell those games.
Ze Sandvich is good smelling! Vith new meat!