Are You Ready to Smell Your Games?

[Log Lady]

Didn't Earthbound already do this as a joke?

 

[Skeleon]

I don't think I even want to smell the insides of a slimy alien ship, hordes of zombies or unwashed goblins.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Why would you wan't to do that? EWWWW, what if they did it for Fallout 3?

 

[Allstar309]

I think it would be wasted on games, why not design it for cooking shows or other nice smelling things on TV.
Cause if your gonna stink up your house it might as well be a good smell.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

OH GOD, The sewer levels.

 

[Steeveeo]

I'd take Holograms over Smellograms any day...

 

[scotth266]

Yay for Smell-O-Vision! Back from the grave to pollute our nostrils once more, it lurches from the graveyard of failed ideas...

 

[Lukeje]

Why would you wan't to do that? EWWWW, what if they did it for Fallout 3?

Hospitals filled with people showing symptoms of radiation sickness...

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

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/])

Permalink

It depends on the game. Flower? Sure. Bioshock? Um, hell no.

 

[O maestre]

theese people should read a history book, what was the success, if any, of the dreaded "Smell-O-Vision". should have checked that before making an olfactory gimmick apparatus contraption. also this could have been avoided by the simple question "do i like the smell of poo, and rotten flesh?"

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I've actually thought about seeing this for a while, I hope it works out because I think it would be really cool to see. (or 'smell')

 

[konkwastaken]

Am I the only freak that is looking forward to this being implemented in Leisure Suit Larry? Guess so.

Or you could just save yourself some money and play it in the nearest Aquarium.

 

[Specter_]

The biggest scent would be gunpowder, like all the time. Or rotting zombie corpses, or some other thing no one wants to be smelling. Probably a lot of sweat too. Or smelling the sewers whenever you're in one in a game. I fear this product.

This. And always remember the spilled guts.

 

[headshotcatcher]

"I smell a boomer"

It'd add to a game greatly, could make more possible enemies and ways to kill them.