Techwatch: Apr. 29, 1996

SWEET SMELL OF...SILICON?

Convinced that smelling is believing, Arizona-based Ferris Productions Inc. last week unveiled the Experience System, a virtual-reality game station with an olfactory add-on.

A mere $12,000 buys the system: a heat-sensitive chair that contours to the body and simulates zero gravity; a million-pixel, head-mounted display that feeds the eyes, headphones that fill the ears, and a quarter-inch hose that fits under the nose.

Our test-sniff report: though it is relaxing to smell "brine" while virtual scuba diving, the cybertrees in the "forest" begin to hint of Pine-Sol after a few minutes, and a flight though the "atmosphere" leaves a trace of burning tires.

The company promises more smells over the next year. Not on the list, however, are sex-attracting pheromones. Although Ferris co-founder Scott Jochim has had plenty of requests, he worries that each whiff could be "addictive." Sure, but so is the smell of money.

GHOST IN THE MACHINE

New-media enthusiasts bedeviled by vaporware--products hyped before they exist--should thrill to the rare appearance of its opposite. Call it ghostware: technology that is alive and well today with no one (or almost no one) sensing its presence.

One example of ghostware haunts America's 3.1 million alphanumeric pagers (a.k.a. alphas), those sleek '90s icons that deliver, along with the usual phone numbers, written messages such as "Running late" or "Where's my heroin?" Almost all today's alphas, unbeknown to their owners, can also receive E-mail. That means Mom can beckon you home by sending a message over CompuServe or your husband can slip an electronic grocery list across the Internet and onto your hip. (If you have a pager, one phone call to your service provider should be enough to turn on the mail.)

The next step is interactivity. Wireless Access, a Silicon Valley start-up, has invented an innovative product called SkyWriter that includes an onscreen keyboard and a thumb-guided cursor for pecking out and transmitting messages. It works: five minutes after a Time reporter first picked one up, he managed to create and send E-mail--while navigating rush-hour traffic. How good is the technology? Three weeks ago, Microsoft shelled out an estimated $25 million to increase its small stake in Skytel, a pager company that will sell the SkyWriter this fall. Bill Gates, it seems, believes in ghosts.

CYBERIAN LANDSCAPES

For this summer's crop of well-intentioned but clueless souls endeavoring to turn their drab backyards into earthly Edens, the 3D Landscape CD-ROM could be as valuable as seeds or hoes. With this instructional software from Books That Work, budding green thumbs can design their own realistic gardens on an easy-to-use computer grid, dragging and dropping into place any of 800 plants and flowers. Advanced features let users take a 3-D tour of their creations or watch the virtual gardens blossom and fade as the seasons pass. One tip: Don't add water. (Books That Work, 1-800-242-4546, $59.95)

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