1. Smell the scenes (ongoing):

Humans & Scent:
One of our most basic human functions is the scents. The way our brain recognizes scent is different from that of machines.
Humans detect scents by picking up odor molecules in the air which then sends signals to our brain using chemoreceptors. The brain then interprets these patterns based off of our olfactory functions and memory. It then translates this into reactions.
That is why we can smell smoke and detect a fire before seeing the actual fire.

Machines & Scent:
Machines, on the contrary, detects scent by picking up molecules in the air and then mapping this to a database of human perceptions of scents.

Objective:
Our objective is to explore the relationship between scents in the machine.
We are exploring how synesthetic relationships between sight and scent can evoke feelings of familiarity.
By creating a cross-sensory experience that enhances our visual perception, we’re also extending our research to potentially teach a machine how to smell by pairing computer-visioning with human synesthesia.

Future:
This is a speculative design where we are creating an extension of the relationship between the human and the machine through the synesthetic relationship of memories and scent.
We see a myriad of applications for our prototype including creating a wearable for the visually impaired to help recognize sights and release scents that will reference or trigger memories in place of seeing.

So far, the project are still under construction. In the temporary showreel, we used different objects to represent different scenes to trigger the odor generating device to diffuse different odors.

1. Smell the scenes (ongoing)