New Smell Tech Could Make VR Therapies More Powerful
"Here, we’ve rounded up eight of the neatest, most promising innovations of the bunch—and it was a quite a bunch this year!"
January 10, 2023
Emily Matchar
Smithsonian Magazine
"Each year in early January, journalists, investors, startup founders and other tech-heads descend on a convention center in Las Vegas for the buzzing Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This year’s spectacle featured all the usual suspects—new electric vehicles, thinner laptops and bigger, better screens.
It also showcased some wild, the-future-is-here technologies that may or may not make it to the real world. And then there were the inventions designed to help, including health devices and technologies aimed at making the world more connected and less lonely.
Smell is one of our most powerful senses for evoking memories and emotions. So it makes sense that, as virtual reality becomes ever more realistic, it would incorporate scent. Vermont-based company OVR has done just that, unveiling a scent cartridge that adds fragrance to virtual worlds. In addition to making video games cooler (imagine smelling pizza and motor oil as you creep around the darkened streets of an imaginary future city), OVR says its product can help calm patients using VR in therapeutic settings. The Washington Post says it’s “the first iteration of something that might one day seem as natural as the scent of grass at a park.” The device should hit the market later this year."
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