Because olfaction relies on sensing chemical compounds rather than physical light or sound waves, technology faces limitations in accurately capturing a smell, transmitting that information across devices, and reproducing the odor at the destination. However, researchers at Ohio State University and Zhejiang Laboratory in China have made a significant leap toward delivering smells through a screen one day.
As described in a paper published in Science Advances, the team designed a fully automated system that utilizes artificial intelligence to classify which chemicals belong to which smell profile, as well as bracelets or necklaces that dispense the transmitted smell near the receiver’s nose.