Wine testing and post-Covid smell training with virtual reality game
Can you fine tune your nose with virtual reality? That's what researchers behind a smell machine believe. The device can also enhance the experience of computer games and potentially help people regain a lost sense of smell.
The machine – also called an olfactory display – allows you to smell scents in a VR environment, that is, the illusion of being in reality in a computer-simulated environment.
Post-Covid has shown more than ever before how important the ability to smell is for well-being. It is a great loss not to be able to smell.
Simon Niedenthal
The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between interaction and game researcher Simon Niedenthal at Malmö University, and a research group in psychology at Stockholm University.
The unique element of the research is that the group found a way to connect a container with scent capsules to hand controls of a fully immersive VR headset, the HTC Vive. The container can hold four scents at any one time. These can be mixed in different ways and directed at the nose with the aid of a fan. An integrated computer with Wi-Fi enables the control to be connected to other devices.
“You can use any liquid scents in the container,” says Niedenthal.
To illustrate how the innovation can be used, the research group has developed a wine tasting game where the "wine taster" has to correctly guess the aromas in a virtual wine cellar. The degree of difficulty can be varied through a competition where you mix different aromas.
“The possibility to move on from a passive to a more active sense of smell in the game world paves the way for the development of completely new smell-based game mechanics based on the players' movements and judgments,” says Niedenthal.
The olfactory display can not only contribute to game development. According to the research, it can be used by anyone who works with fragrances, such as chefs or perfumers. But Niedenthal finds the main benefit to be in improving people's quality of everyday life. A target group to measure this is people who lost their sense of smell after contracting Covid.
“Post-Covid has shown more than ever before how important the ability to smell is for well-being. It is a great loss not to be able to smell. I am often contacted by people asking if I can help them. It is heartbreaking,” says Niedenthal.
He highlights the interesting collaboration with psychologists who bring to the table a knowledge of about psychophysiological processes.
“More research is needed, but active scent training can mean a greater chance of rehabilitation for the increasing number of people who have lost their sense of smell. In fact, there are probably many areas of use that I cannot foresee,” adds Niedenthal.
Text: Adrian Grist & Magnus Jando