The Smell Engine: A system for artificial odor synthesis in virtual environments

Mimicking physical odor sensations virtually can present users with a real - time odor synthesis that approximates what users would smell in a virtual environment, e.g., as they walk around in virtual reality. To this end, we devise a Smell Engine that includes: (i) a Smell Composer framework that a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bahremand, Alireza, Manetta, Mason, Lai, Jessica, Lahey, Byron, Spackman, Christy, Smith, Brian H., Gerkin, Richard C., LiKamWa, Robert
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace electronics
Computer systems organization
Conferences
Human-centered computing
Interactive systems and tools
Olfactory
Sensors and actuators
Solid modeling
Three-dimensional displays
User interfaces
Virtual environments
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Description
Summary:Mimicking physical odor sensations virtually can present users with a real - time odor synthesis that approximates what users would smell in a virtual environment, e.g., as they walk around in virtual reality. To this end, we devise a Smell Engine that includes: (i) a Smell Composer framework that allows developers to configure odor sources in virtual space, (ii) a Smell Mixer that dynamically estimates the odor mix that the user would smell, based on diffusion models and relative odor source distances, and (iii) a Smell Controller that coordinates an olfactometer to physically present an approximation of the odor mix to the user's mask from a set of odorants channeled through controllable flow valves. Through a three - part user study, we found that the Smell Engine can help measure a subject's olfactory detection threshold and improve their ability to precisely localize odors in the virtual environment, as compared to existing trigger - based solutions.
ISSN:2642-5254
DOI:10.1109/VR51125.2022.00043