Adding an Olfactory Dimension To Games 108
cylonlover writes "California-based company Scent Sciences is looking to bring an olfactory dimension to computer games with its ScentScape personal digital scent delivery system. The ScentScape Gaming Suite system consists of a unit that plugs into a PC or gaming console via USB and generates smells using scent cartridges. As well as aiming for the development of ScentScape-capable games from games developers, the system also allows gamers to add scents to existing games and share these with other ScentScape system users."
Vapourware, literally! (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously folks, this is an awful, awful idea. If given a choice between sinking my money into this or into the Phantom console, I'd have to think a bit before making up my mind.
Want to make a game with an olfactory element? Go for it. Make the character someone/something with an enhanced sense of smell and display whatever their nose picks up as a visual overlay, or with an in game radar map. This has been done at least twice that I'm aware of, and works just fine, conceptually. Make it a core gameplay element and you could do something original even.
It also doesn't require either the player to use their very real nose to experience anything unpleasant, and doesn't require an expensive, useless, gimmicky peripheral.
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DigiScents iSmell [wikipedia.org]
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Love the story at the first link. Number two was bitching about Warcraft III. Now we are how many years into WoW? That entry made most interesting by number one, which was 'top vaporware'... in 2001.
Forget the Obligatory Lava Level (Score:2)
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Not to mention all the War and Zombie games out there. Mmmm...scorched and rotting flesh. I love getting the urge to barf when I play my games.
Gamasutra Gave This One a Shitty Review (Score:2)
A real stinker.
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Unlike vision where you can use combinations of RGB light to fool the eye into seeing almost any color, there are no basis vectors for scent. The scent cartridge becomes unwieldy.
... but at least that means that a prankster can't send you a shit, rotten egg, butyric acid or worse scent if that isn't included in the cartridge in the first place.
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Sure there are some real stinkers on that list, but it isn't exactly holding up well in hindsight.
Perhaps this is the year of smells on the desktop...
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I've been to war - there's nothing like Napalm in the morning, and its not pleasant - especially with burning flesh.
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Reminds me of teledildonics which actually was/is a serious proposal as well. But maybe not a good one.
Re:Vapourware, literally! (Score:4, Funny)
Good? Any proposal that results in the creation of a website called "Slashdong" and a conference called "Arse Elektronika" is an awesome proposal !-)
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I knew a girl who ran who a semi-adult website who once had someone purchase a vibrator for her that could be operated via sms. It was of the style that she could wear for long periods during the day. Never heard what came of it..
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Never heard what came of it..
Your answer is staring you in the face.
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How often do games have sewers? Gore? Imagine what Doom's zombies would smell like. Or Quake 4's Meat-Factory levels.
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How incredibly cool would it be to *sniff sniff* detect a zombie approaching round a corner?
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It also doesn't require either the player to use their very real nose to experience anything unpleasant, and doesn't require an expensive, useless, gimmicky peripheral.
It's not useless. It is just simply not... enough... to... use... a... single one.
I mean, com'on, in an immersive 3D gaming experince, you want to use a single expensive gimmick? Buddy, you'll need at least 4 of them for a true "surround" smelly experience... Just look at the today's sound systems - the decent ones would even have a bass-booster dedicated channel... now that's how you need to do it.
Ahh, the smell of rotten corpses in the zombie caves!
Or "the smell of napalm in the morning. The smell, you kn
Also, don't worry much (Score:2)
1. Don't worry much. This is one of the ideas that's been popping up again and again since the early 90. And every time it went nowhere, precisely because the awful downsides are that obvious and nobody wants it.
But, as is the case with stupid ideas, just as you think you buried it at the crossroads with a stake through its chest, never to rise again, along comes an idiot investor and drops a drop of blood... err... a wad of cash, and it does rise again. I'm seriously starting to think there's some Dunning-
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#1 - "Everything has already been done, no need in trying to improve anything." Bollocks. We tried 3D once before, it failed. And while it's very possible the current 3D trend will also fail, I can easily see a time when true 3D without glasses will hit like a storm. Technology advances, new ideas are born, improvements are made.
#2 - Almost all of your downsides could easily be worked around if the delivery device was attached to the face / nose. As far as allergies go, I'd say epilepsy is pretty close
Have you RTFA? (Score:2)
Have you actually RTFA? Because the gizmo there _isn't_ attached to the face, and is a verbatim repeat of everything that was wrong and stupid with the ones that failed, including basically all the factors I've listed, from lag to being unable to get rid of the previously produced smells.
So, sorry, my assessment that it's yet another idiot who thinks he's the first to do the same stupidity, is still very much true. Or to quote everyone's favourite wisecracker, Bejamin Franklin, "The definition of insanity i
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Have you actually RTFA? Because the gizmo there _isn't_ attached to the face, and is a verbatim repeat of everything that was wrong and stupid with the ones that failed, including basically all the factors I've listed, from lag to being unable to get rid of the previously produced smells.
So, sorry, my assessment that it's yet another idiot who thinks he's the first to do the same stupidity, is still very much true. Or to quote everyone's favourite wisecracker, Bejamin Franklin, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Yes, maybe someone else can do it right, but these particular ass-clowns aren't it.
Yes, I have read the article, and you are correct in your points. However, I typed my reply because it seemed more like you were attacking the idea itself, rather than this particular product.
I think the idea has applications, but you're right about this particular implementation- its useless.
Anybody else remembering the Activision game (Score:2)
The Leather Goddesses of Phobos ?
It came with a scratch 'n sniff card that was covered with various stinks (you smell , it stinks ,) that you would be directed to scratch over and get a waft of at various points in the game.
What a bunch of idiots we all were.
Sorry it wasn't an Activision game (Score:2)
It was Infocom.
Hey what do you want?
It was back in 1986. My memory isn't perfect.
Remember all those terrible Leisure Suit Larry games?
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I dimly recall them trying this in theaters back in the late 70's/early 80's. Smellovision, I think it was called. As I recall, it was a flop because audiences didn't give a damn. I somehow doubt that has changed. Smell won't be an important aspect of video gaming until VR reaches the full-immersion point. I suppose I would want to smell the environment on the holodeck, but I don't care so much in games.
Plus since most games are variations of shooting things, I'd imagine the smells could be rather unpleasan
*puke* (Score:2)
New prospects for Goatse... (Score:1)
Everything will smell like ass...
*sigh* (Score:3)
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I think, that was the point -- to make player aware of how bad some things are.
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The location brings in the need to rely upon native flora and fauna to survive.[16] This is manifested in a stamina gauge, which constantly depletes during gameplay.[11] Failure to restore the gauge by eating has detrimental effects on gameplay, such as decreasing Snake's ability to aim his weapon and being heard by the enemy due to Snake's loud stomach grumbles.[16] Food can be stored in the backpack until it is needed. However, some types of food rot over time, and consuming rotten foods may result in Snake developing a stomach ache, causing the stamina gauge to deplete faster.
And other in-game foods, especially poisonous ones, taste(though what we "taste" is mostly smell anyway) like crap right off the bat.
I'm thinkin' of something that tastes like sodium and tomato juice, with faint hints of onion and vinegar. Maybe floral accents, depending on what it was stuffed with. We used to eat it all the time back in the day...anybody remember what it was? Hey, what ha
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I'm thinkin' of something that tastes like sodium and tomato juice, with faint hints of onion and vinegar.
Pussy!
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Well, this better not cause the good ol' Gyruss video game to be remade with different smells for each wave. I don't want to have to smell Uranus.
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Great now we'll get: Grand Theft Auto: Detroit. Now with real hooker smell!
I wonder what codes you need to send the device to produce the proper mixture of Cotton Candy and Shame?
Zombie horror games... (Score:1)
will be a nightmare to play. I would imagine zombies smell really really really bad.
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On the other hand, Plants vs Zombies would be a great game to try this on. Mmmmn, lavender. Ewwwww, putrescence.
How about NO! (Score:5, Funny)
Plenty of games stink already.
Really i can only think of a few real uses for this... And honestly i don't want to smell any of those things either.
yuk (Score:2)
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Smells like... blood.
*six hours later*
It still smells like blood.
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Woah, this again. (Score:3)
This is, like, a totally radical blast from the past. It was a blast from the past when the BBC brought back smellovision in '95, dudes and dudettes, and has been tried in one form or another since, like, a hundred years ago, man.
Also, using scent for video games would be totally bogus, since there's olfactory latency and stuff involved.
Re:Woah, this again. (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question is (Score:1)
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When will they come out with a fart app for it?
Never... you see, StinkPad is already a trademark of IBM and iSmell is the name of the previous failure of this technology. Too crowded for Apple to try it now... *duck*
Fart apps? (Score:2)
Now we now why Jobs didn't want anymore fart apps. It's one thing to hear farts, it's another to have to actually smell them.
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And why do farts stink?
So deaf people can enjoy them too.
Really? (Score:1)
Waste of r&d ... for games anyway (Score:1)
This game stinks! (Score:1)
Really...
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Earthbound's a good game even if that was its tagline.
I'll predict this product's success by saying: (Score:3)
I have zero interest in this product. I don't want it. If it was on the market right now, and it worked perfectly, and it cost £1, I wouldn't buy it. If it was free, I wouldn't take it. It does not appeal to me in any way whatsoever.
Companies have been banging on about "smell-o-vision" for TV for years. I don't think anyone is interested in that either.
Scent cartridges? Jeez give me a break. As if anyone is going to waste money on smelly video games.
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And I'm sure that if some day the technology is refined and leads to the creation of a smell synthetizer, it will be a big hit. It really has the potential to greatly improve the immersion in games or
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I think we're going to have to wait until we have reliable molecular-assemblers before we can really do this right. And even then it would have to be something like nose-plugs to prevent lag from waiting for the scent to reach your nose.
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I'll raise that, and say if you paid me to take this, I would have to seriously consider whether it was worth the space it would consume.
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Cartridge empty (Score:1)
Why do I think that the most common refill will be "fart"?
It worked for Earthbound (Score:2)
Leisure Suit Larry (Score:4, Funny)
This could take Leisure Suit Larry to a whole new level.
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Forget LSL, this was kinda done for Leather Goddesses of Phobos using scratch-n-sniff.
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The chemicals could also be engineered to be quite volatile. There's no reason the scents need to hang around for hours...
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The immediate application that came to mind for this is combat trainers/simulators more than traditional games. Think of the ones used for military/police training or exposure therapy with PTSD. When you're trying to build confidence and muscle memory for life-or-death scenarios that extra bit of realism could certainly help the training.
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Especially when this particular scent bypasses much of our higher functions and is wired directly into our lower brain and memory centers. I don't think it would be an extra 'bit' in this case, it would be more powerful than you'd think.
again? (Score:2)
This is the second or third time such a product has been announced. I can see it now, computer viruses that make the user sick!
What's the big deal? (Score:1)
I'm 70 years old and do this for all occasions, accidentally and on demand.Grand children think I'm a genius!
OMG - AGAIN ?!?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Even though the smell systems 'can' be very effective, they have always had the same flaw. They may have others, but there is always the same big one plaguing them. They don't have a way to clear out the air without annoying the subjects. In other words, in a very short time, they just stink!
Imagine if music players didn't end the previous musical note, the cacophony would quickly become unbearable. It's the same thing with these smell-o-vision gadgets. Sure there's a way around it, but who wants to wear a mask the whole time, or be in a freaking wind tunnel? Nobody, that's why they fail.
Come on designers! Freaking google the stupid ideas and realize why they failed so you can either fix the problems or not be stupid enough to repeat the same basic design F-Ups of the past!
The Ultimate Peripheral (Score:2)
How about Peripheral Vision? I'd like to be able to see NPC cars and bad guys out of the corner of my eye for a change.
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Thanks... (Score:1)
But this game already stinks enough as it is... :P
This has been around, and it STINKS (Score:3)
And it was simply no fun.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/digiscent.html [wired.com]
We had this at a "cyber cafe" that I worked in toward the end of the '90s. There was a VR headset that allowed you to fly through different landscapes (i remember a musty smelling cave). This machine sat in the corner and collected dust.
Maybe when we get to the point where virtual worlds make us feel like we are actually standing somewhere different (and not just staring at the screen or wearing a headset), then we will need to tackle things like smell and touch. This will help our virtual world transcend that "uncanny valley".
For now, it's just not needed. It's a gimmick, and probably an expensive one. I'm not insisted it will never be needed, but just not now.
When we do finally need to need to tackle the "smelling" aspect of VR, my guess is that our immersion into the world will be so advanced compared to what we have now that it's being done by fooling our neurons, and not our eyes / ears / nose themselves. At that point, these devices will be moot, because we'll just be sending signals to the brain.
you really want to smell this (cad-comic)? (Score:2)
Panel three?!?!
http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20101220/ [cad-comic.com]
2 girls one cup (Score:2)
Does this really have a market? (Score:2)
Oh dear (Score:4, Funny)
"Honey, are you playing Second life again?"
"No sweetheart"
"So why does it smell like semen and cat hair in here?"
I can imagine it (Score:2)
via USB (Score:2)
I guess that makes it a USB pongle ?!
An idea which has already failed (Score:2)
A company called DigiScents had a product called iSmell, I saw it at GDC quite some years ago. It worked, it failed, give up.
No imagination (Score:2)
You guys all have no imagination. Have you ever tried this? Can you not imagine it adding an interesting element to game play or other apps? Scent is the first of human senses, and is deeply tied in with memory. Also, you can think of it as a medium or a palette that can express both good and bad smells. When engineers first designed the monitor, everyone wasn't complaining that games would all have pictures of lemon party and goatse etc. Any game developer subjecting their customers to too many b
Ooooh that smell, can you smell that smell.... (Score:1)
Terminator (oil and electric)
Half Life (Creatures and chemicals)
Need for Speed (Oil and Gas)
Army of Two (Gun Powder and Burning wreckage)
And these are the tame games. I'm sure I could come up with some others that would smell worse. Have a good gaming session and no one would come to your house anymore or they would call the cops figuring you were burning the place down with your new maserratti.
smellovision (Score:1)
Need to refresh the chemicals in this (Score:2)
History and careful what you wish for... (Score:1)
Do they have building blocks? (Score:2)
this might be the worst idea ever (Score:1)
I hope war games become more realistic (Score:2)
A friend of mine was on the "highway of Death" in Gulf I. He said the worst part was the stench of burnt decaying bodies. Or the smell of you team members after being in a scenario of two weeks game time without TP or showers. Or the smell of NPCs who lose a morale roll and pee and crap their pants.
It may make war less glamorous for all the arm chair warriors out there and make peace more attractive.
Speaks to the difficulty of simulating olfaction (Score:1)
Unlike stuff we see and hear, you can't describe what we smell on a single dimension, and that's why we literally have hundreds or perhaps thousands of different olfactory receptors, while we have only three major types of light receptors on our retinas - and, correspondingly, three different color signals in most color display adapters.
While this machine promises 20 basic scents, I suspect, even if they were delivered well and integrated into a game seamlessly, you'd grow bored of them quickly.
I could see
No thanks for the first person shooters (Score:2)
I like to shoot, but too much, especially automatic, and the propellant gasses make me want to barf. It's hard to breathe in a cloud of that stuff.
Plus I've been in a war, saw the dead and burned bodies, and smelled them. It is not pleasant. And in that war game don't forget to add the smell of diesel and body odor from your comrades. Hey, let's add the smell of the burning shit cans under the outhouses if you want to get really realistic.
I'll keep my FPS scent-free, thank you.
iSmell (Score:2)
The iSmell or iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer was a computer peripheral device developed by DigiScents in 2001. The prototype connected to a personal computer via USB or serial port and was designed to emit a smell when a user visited a web site or opened an email. The device contained a cartridge with 128 "primary odors," which could be mixed to replicate natural and man-made odors. DigiScents had indexed thousands of common odors, which could be coded, digitized, and embedded into web pages or email.[1]
In 2006, the iSmell was named one of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time" by PC World Magazine, which commented that "[f]ew products literally stink, but this one did--or at least it would have, had it progressed beyond the prototype stage.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismell [wikipedia.org]
This idea stinks (Score:2)