A Novel Skin-Interfaced Wireless Olfactory Feedback System
With the advancements in technology, humans have been able to explore new realms of experience. Vision, audio, and haptics are essential sensations that have been integrated into human-machine interfaces. Researchers have demonstrated that even the sense of smell can be integrated into human-machine interfaces to create a more engaging and immersive experience, which has been accomplished through the latest invention of a novel skin-interfaced wireless olfactory feedback system developed by the researchers at City University of Hong Kong and Beihang University.
New Portable Olfactory Feedback System
The new portable olfactory feedback system integrates scents into virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) environments, which broadens its applications in various areas, including education, healthcare, and entertainment. The device contains wireless and programmable capabilities that use flexible, miniaturized odor generator arrays, which can release various odors upon demand. The device’s odor generator uses a subtle heating platform and mechanical thermal actuator to heat and melt scented paraffin wax in order to release different scents with adjustable concentrations. The thermal actuators can be used to stop the scent by cooling down the temperature of the wax.
Two designs provide scents on demand through the miniaturized, lightweight, and soft substrate of the olfactory feedback devices. The first is an embedded patch-like device comprising two odor generators that can be mounted directly on the human upper lip, providing an ultra-fast olfactory response. The second design is a flexible face mask with nine odor generators of different scents, which can provide hundreds of scent combinations.
The technology was tested on 11 volunteers, and they were able to recognize the different scents generated by the device with an average success rate of 93%. With different paraffin waxes, researchers were able to create around 30 distinct scents, ranging from herbal rosemary and fruity pineapple to unpleasant odors like stinky durian.
Potential Applications
The portable nature of the device and its ability to provide a wireless and programmable interface creates numerous applications for using the device across various fields, including medical treatment, 4D movie viewing, human emotion control, and online teaching.
4D Movie Viewing
The devices can release various fruit fragrances in a virtual garden, which would make the viewing of 4D movies a more immersive experience. The new wireless sniffing system has an added ability to interact with a virtual subject while walking in a virtual garden, providing a sense of being in an actual garden environment.
Medical Treatment
The olfactory interface will play a significant role in helping amnesiac patients to recover their lost memories by recalling their emotional memories, which the virtual environment modulates the perception of smell.
Education
The device’s portable nature makes it an excellent option for enhancing the VR and AR experience in online teaching. It can provide students with a better understanding of smells related to the subject by stimulating their sense of smell.
Future Development
The researchers plan to continue developing the sniffing system for shorter response times, higher integration density, and smaller footprints for use in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) applications. With the device integration to VR headsets and masks, the scientists are looking to create a more advanced and interactive experience.
In Conclusion
The novel skin-interfaced wireless olfactory feedback system showcased significant potential across various fields, including its ability to provide a more engaging and immersive experience in entertainment, medical treatment, and education. Its wireless and programmable nature also shows great potential for future technological development, with the researchers looking to reduce the response time and size of the device for greater flexibility. The olfactory feedback system represents a novel application of technology that could significantly change how people perceive different experiences in the future.
Summary
Researchers at City University of Hong Kong and Beihang University invented a novel skin-interfaced wireless olfactory feedback system that can release various odors. The new technology integrates odors into virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) to provide a more immersive experience, with wide applications ranging from 4D movie viewing and medical treatment to online teaching. The new portable olfactory feedback system uses wireless and programmable capabilities with flexible, miniaturized odor generator arrays. The magic of scent generators is based on a subtle heating platform and a mechanical thermal actuator. Researchers created a small skin-embedded, patch-like device comprising two OGs and another design with nine OGs, providing hundreds of scent combinations. The technology supports long-term utilization without frequent replacement and maintenance and responds quickly to pop or suppress odors for precise control of the odor and concentration. By using different paraffin waxes, the research team was able to create around 30 different scents in total. The device’s portable nature has contributed to a wide range of applications, specifically in medical treatment, 4D movie viewing, human emotion control, and online teaching.
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A research team co-led by researchers at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently invented a novel skin-interfaced wireless olfactory feedback system that can release various odors with miniaturized odor generators (OGs). The new technology integrates odors into virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) to provide a more immersive experience, with wide applications ranging from 4D movie viewing and medical treatment to online teaching.
“Recent human-machine interfaces highlight the importance of human sensation feedback, including vision, audio, and haptics, associated with wide applications in entertainment, medical treatment, and VR/AR. Smell also plays an important role in human perception experiences,” said Dr. Yu Xinge. , Associate Professor in CityU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, who co-led the study. “However, current scent-generating technologies are primarily associated with large instruments for generating scents in a closed area or room, or a bulky built-in virtual reality suite.”
In view of this, Dr. Yu and colleagues at Beihang University developed a next-generation portable olfactory feedback system with wireless and programmable capabilities based on flexible, miniaturized odor generator arrays.
They created two designs to release scents on demand through new olfactory feedback devices, which are made of soft, miniaturized, lightweight substrates. The first is a small, skin-embedded, patch-like device comprising two OGs, which can be mounted directly to the human upper lip. With an extremely short distance between the OGs and the user’s nose, it can provide ultra-fast olfactory response. Another design is a flexible face mask design with nine OGs of different types of scents, which can provide hundreds of scent combinations.
The magic of scent generators is based on a subtle heating platform and a mechanical thermal actuator. By heating and melting scented paraffin wax in OG to cause a phase change, different scents of adjustable concentration are released. To stop the scent, scent generators can cool down the temperature of the wax by controlling the movement of the thermal actuator.
By using different paraffin waxes, the research team was able to create around 30 different scents in total, from herbal rosemary and fruity pineapple to sweet baked pancakes. It can even create less-than-pleasant odors, like stinky durian. The 11 volunteers were able to recognize the odors generated by the OGs with an average success rate of 93 percent.
The new system supports long-term utilization without frequent replacement and maintenance, and allows interaction with users for various applications. More importantly, the olfactory interface can support wireless and programmable operations, and can interact with users in various applications. It can respond quickly to pop or suppress odors and for precise control of odor concentration. And the sources of odor are easily accessible and biocompatible.
In their experiments, demonstrations in 4D movie viewing, medical treatment, human emotion control, and VR/AR experience in online teaching exhibited the great potential of new smell interfaces in various applications.
For example, the new wireless sniffing system can interact between the user and a virtual subject when the user is “walking” in a virtual garden by releasing various fruit fragrances. The new technology also showed potential in helping amnesiac patients recover lost memories, as the experience modulates the perception of smell, leading to recall of emotional memories.
“The new olfaction systems provide a new alternative option for users to perform olfaction visualization in a virtual environment. The fast response rate in odor release, high odor generator integration density, and two portable designs ensure great potential for sniffing interfaces in various applications, ranging from entertainment and education to healthcare and human-machine interfaces,” said Dr. Yu.
In the next step, he and his research team will focus on developing a next-generation sniffing system with shorter response time, smaller footprint, and higher integration density for VR, AR, and mixed reality applications ( MR).
The findings were published in the scientific journal nature communications under the title “Smooth, miniaturized and wireless olfactory interface for virtual reality”.
Corresponding authors are Dr. Yu and Dr. Li Yuhang of the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Beihang University. First co-authors are Dr. Liu Yiming, a postdoc in Dr. Yu’s research team, Mr. Yiu Chunki and Mr. Wooyoung Park, doctoral students supervised by Dr. Yu, and Dr. Zhao Zhao, a postdoc in Dr. Li’s research team.
The research was mainly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, CityU, and the HKSAR Research Grants Council.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230606111647.htm
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