Ask HN: How would you transmit smell over the web?
Please elaborate on the technical details of your solution and limitations to your approach (e.g. device size).
On the sender side, there would need to be a "smell microphone" to inhale and encode smells based on chemical properties. The data can be transmitted over HTTP or another transfer protocol.
On the receiver side, there would be a "smell speaker" (and maybe amplifier) that decodes and exhales the smell.
I can imagine various technical challenges on both ends, specifically chemical analysis and synthesis on a small enough scale to be practical.
EDIT: This page has a history of such attempts, most recently Aromajoin with "the first wearable scent device" in 2016.
> The iSmell failed to get the interest of the public. When looking at what went wrong for the iSmell, it is revealed that the missing link was a market survey. According to Startupover’s Andrea Dusi, the iSmell “was definitely a nice idea, but not a useful one”. DigiScents has shut down due to a lack of funding, although it still “continues to license its technology and is looking for funding for a relaunch. [1]
I wonder if with virtual reality, something like this will pick up.