Somboon’s system will use 15 chemical-sensing microchips, or electronic noses, to pick up a broad range of aromas. These are then used to create a digital recipe from a set of 96 chemicals that can be chosen according to the purpose of each individual gadget. When you want to replay a smell, drops from the relevant vials are mixed, heated and vaporised. In tests so far, the system has successfully recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, lemon, apple, banana and melon.
They don’t mention this possibility in the article, but this could be a boon to wine-lovers: record the bouquet of a particular wine, then play it back later while tasting a different wine so you can compare the two. Or simply save it into a library of wine odors to further educate your nose.
How long before you can buy “odor symphonies” and other forms of smelly art?
