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TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 4, 2001, VOL.157 NO.22
Sniff-N-Scratch
Stop and smell the virtual gunpowder
By SARAH TILTON
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Red Dog Studio for TIME.
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If you're looking forward to the day when you can stop and smell the daisies without putting down your laptop, it may not be too far off. I'm at the much-hyped but financially troubled DigiScents Inc. in Oakland, California, for a click-and-sniff demonstration. When I select the cotton candy icon, a short blast from the iSmell scent synthesizer—which connects to a computer or game console—takes me back to the county fair. Some fragrances are better than others: ocean breeze tends more toward air freshener than the beaches of Bali.
Researchers from India to Massachusetts are exploring digital smell technology, add-ons that make your computer into a perfume factory. But the current atmosphere for virtual scents pretty much, well, smells. Greg Gretsch, a Silicon Valley veteran at blue-chip venture capital firm Sigma Partners, says, "Someone talks about digital scent technology and my bulls___ meter goes way up."
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The iSmell works a bit like an ink-jet printer. You slip a scent cartridge into the shoe-box-sized device, which can mix thousands of smells using the same chemicals found in perfumes and food. It then releases a dose of the scent in short, focused spurts. Though a spokesman announced the company's demise last month, DigiScents continues to pin its hopes on the video-game market. Co-founder and chief executive officer Joel Bellenson predicts that a year from now players firing off a round of ammunition in a virtual shoot-out will be immersed in the smell of gunpowder thanks to the $200 attachment.
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How would Gretsch, who concedes he has yet to test smell technology, react to a business plan from a smelly start-up? "In this market it would end up in the circular file," he says. Or, depending on the level of technobabble, it might have a more dignified end. "We save some business plans just because they're funny," says Gretsch.
Related Sites
DigiScents
Cyrano Sciences
TriSenx
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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