VR Still Stinks Because It Doesn’t Smell
Wired Magazine
Jude Stewart
July 31, 2022
“Smell is arguably our realest sense—the sense that most grounds us in reality. If virtual reality wants to deliver on its potential, it needs to wake up and smell its nauseating scentlessness.”
Our sense of smell is vital. It tells us about our environment and alerts us to possible dangers. It informs us about the quality and taste of our foods. And it connects us to other human beings, letting us know what others are feeling and our biological compatibility. Because of how our sense of smell connects to our brains, smells also have the ability to impact our emotions or trigger memories. Overall, “smell is arguably our realest sense—the sense that most grounds us in reality.”
The lack of smell in VR affects its realism. Without smell, we can only emerge ourselves so far into virtual realities, making it obvious what is the real world and what is VR. Luckily, OVR Technology is working to add smell to VR by creating scent-simulating VR technology. OVR's ION attaches to VR headsets and releases scents through Bluetooth that can coincide with what the user is doing.
