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Digitally Compressed Scents

Even I couldn't make this one up. You can see the article for yourself at... http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/20000304/news/current/personal.htx - ed.



Contributed by: CBS Marketwatch


Firm makes scents of the Web Company to add smells to games, e-mails

By Kristen Gerencher, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 7:02 PM ET Mar 4, 2000 Personal Finance News

OAKLAND, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Move over, Smell-o-Vision. On your way, Odorama. A new player is reeking havoc on the fragrance scene.

Privately held DigiScents has sniffed out what it hopes will be the next big thing on the Internet -- digitally compressed scents that waft out from an e-mail, interactive game or online advertising.

In a move to douse the mass market with its "iSmell" machine by Christmas, the company announced plans Friday to unveil its digital scent "developer's kit" to computer game makers next week in San Jose.

The firm is already working with Real Networks and is in talks with Eidos, maker of the popular "Tomb Raider" computer game. It's also meeting with food, cosmetics and fragrance companies to corner markets in advertising, e-commerce and online travel.

Sniffing for success

"We see ourselves as setting the software standard for digital scent on the Web," said DigiScents President Dexster Smith, who is particularly excited about its potential for the e-travel business."A key part of any location is smell, whether it be the eucalyptus in California or the tropical smells in the Caribbean or what have you."

DigiScents is wagering that its products will become the olfactory equivalent of downloading a music file on the Web. It hopes to move classic scent experiments like the John Waters film "Polyester" and scratch and sniff stickers into the information age.

Its site will offer a type of smell mixing palette on which users can design their own signature scent that they can attach to e-mail, personal Web sites and greeting cards, said Smith. Of course, both sender and recipient would need to own the device, which, as a computer peripheral, is expected to sell for about the same price as one, he said.

Overlooked sense

The site is also interested in promoting scent as an art form dubbed "scentography," said Smith. "It's probably the most powerful sense we have in terms of emotion and in terms of memory, yet it's something that's incredibly underutilized and incredibly underexplored."

"The whole perfumery and fragrance world is very much confined to an incredibly small number of people who actually come up with these fragrances. So we're about bringing smell to the everyday person."

Smith said the company is in talks with top personal computer manufacturers for "either bundling the peripheral or having the technology embedded in the peripherals themselves."

But the most exciting part of the equation will be the arrival of the so-called snortal later in the year, he said. The snortal, a scent portal, will be a hub for smell-enhancing tools and a community of smell-aholics. Smith hopes consumers get a whiff of what he called the "new revolution."

CBS.MW

Kristen Gerencher is a personal finance reporter for CBS MarketWatch.

¡Sería genial poder compartir distintas olores desde la distancia!