New Device Can Record and Playback Odors

I remember a Futurama episode when Professor what's-his-name looked into outer space through his smelloscope.

Well, the futurama is here:

Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan are building an odour recorder capable of doing just that. Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals.

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. "We can even tell a green apple from a red apple," Somboon says.

And perhaps, as Medgadget suggests, the days of a "My Smells" folder on your PC aren't far away.


(And on an unrelated note, here's the gift I'm getting Rush Limbaugh for his birthday.)