Idea: SmellboxVR (yes odours :D)

Talk about Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), augmented reality, wearable computing, controller hardware, haptic feedback, motion tracking, and related topics here!
Post Reply

When will we get total Virtual Reality Immersion?

In couple years after oculusVR is launched
0
No votes
In ten years
1
33%
In twenty years
0
No votes
In before i've died
1
33%
After i've died
0
No votes
Neutral vote
1
33%
 
Total votes: 3

oma
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:39 am

Idea: SmellboxVR (yes odours :D)

Post by oma »

I've been thinking this thing for a long time, i dont believe anybody will in near future do any additional product for the VR world unless it is a total hit. If the VR world really will be launched big then i believe a lot product to increase the immersion will come to daylight. So this is my idea and it is at this moment only in text format (i did make some basic scetches of how the box would look).

Anyway i wrote almost three page long word file which i now copy paste here for you guys to discuss, no fart jokes please :lol:

The Ultimate VR Experience
SMELLBOX
Backstory:
o Since childhood i’ve been hoping for VR revolution and to taste, feel, see and to smell game environment as a full immersion experience. The screen we are used to watch when we are playing games is the immersion breaker even now when there are 3D-glasses which gives you additional sense of “immersion” it still doesn’t really feel like you are in the game. It is more like something’s are coming out of the screen but they still are inside the screen. So I left the idea behind, and waited for bigger things to happen and oh boy did it happen, I saw this great Kickstarter idea where they wanted to bring back Total Virtual Reality Immersion (OculusRift VR). Now the technology was cheaper and more available to start building Virtual Reality Headset so that the brain and eyes could lie themselves to believe that they are in the world impossibilities. (btw I’m still eagerly waiting for customer release of the OculusRift VR, and when it comes im gonna throw all I have to get it)
Idea/s:
o After a while I started thinking again about how we could get to smell things like ocean and something burning in the game. We finns are a population who do crazy stuff like go in to the sauna, heat it to 80 celsius and then use bundle of birch twigs with fresh leaves and slap the skin with it. What we also do sometimes are put some Essential Oils to a bucket filled with water which we then throw in to the heater to get nice smell inside the sauna.

o So why couldn’t we imitate the same principles to make it possible for games to heat a /stove/ or a metallic board to vaporize water (with essential oils added) to give a enough smell so you would feel like walking in the forest or watching a sunset in the beach. Other variation of this idea would be more similar to sauna’s heater but then you would have a sound effect similar when you throw some water to heater.

o I also have been dreaming about wind effect but that is one of the easiest to simulate especially when playing rally games, I sometimes put a fan in front of my face (ofcourse also behind the monitor) and that is basic wind effect. This is so basic that it also breaks the immersion as the speed the air moves towards your face will be unchangeable to speed, unless adding some sort of program to copycat the gaspedals. Anyway the wind effect is not my main ‘project’ if I can call this a project yet. The fans in the box would carry the different fragrances towards the user and also work as a basic wind effect.

o There should be at least six basic fragrances for program to use; forest/ocean/flower(prob. rose)/coal/grass/asphalt. Program made for this smellbox would then able to use multiple scents to create a different smell for different areas.

Concerns/problems:
o Fragrance supply
If there are tubes filled with essential oils and then heated to vaporize it, the supply will eventually end. User would then need to apply more fragrances.
o Heat
This thing would put some additional heat on your desktop increasing fire hazards and all sort of other things.
o Program
Game Developers would need to assign some commands that the driver/program would then recognize and release the wanted fragrance.
 Coding a program which would detect the colors and sounds we see on the VR headset and then emulate as best as it could to release smells. Example computer draws a lot of blue and makes sound of ocean it then would recognize it as a ocean and release the right fragrance.

Would need a lot of work to work on different games manually adding effects during gameplay. There are games were implementing different smells could be easy, example golf games a freshly cut grass, a F1 games smell of engine oil and burned tire.
Plan:
o Release the idea to mtb3D world and discuss it with interested people and hopefully make world acknowledge things that are needed for full immersion.
Design/Sketch:
o I’ve made some really terrible scetches and im not great drawer so i wont publish them, instead you guys could draw or throw ideas?

Additional Options (to take experience further):

o Heat the air inside box, then push the warmed air towards the end user who will then feel the warm summer breeze.
o Same as above but cold air instead to make end user feel the winter breeze.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
equusvenustas
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2014 9:18 pm
Location: Ever free forest,Equestria

Re: Idea: SmellboxVR (yes odours :D)

Post by equusvenustas »

I think a piezoelectric microsprayer would be a better way to dispense the fragrances, that way you have much more control of when and how much fragrance you release, also this allows you to use substances that could decompose before reaching an adequate vapor pressure. I wonder how many fragrances would be needed to have a nice palette and be able to recreate most common smells.

Speaking of that, currently i am doing some research and experimentation for the production and purification of geosmin* and 2-methylisoborneol¨ from filamentous fungi especially Penicillium expansum because i find it delightful smell and also i found that most mammals are attracted to that smell, and i am thinking of doing some experiments about creating strong agreeable emotions in VR while the smell of this compounds are perceived to generate very strong associations and possibly use it as an anti depressant and or as a PTSD therapy.

*geosmin is the compund that gives earth its peculiar smell

¨2-methylisoborneol is also a compound with an earthy like smell but also has a camphor like smell
Post Reply

Return to “General VR/AR Discussion”