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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Kind of disappointing that we don't have the technology to store smells, say, in an iPad, and retrieve them when we open an e-reader app.

Scent was the first sense that we acquired in evolution, yet the last one we technologically master.

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To actually synthesize the smell molecules would pretty much require (Star Trek) replicator levels of technology.

Also, if/when we do have them, I'm sure that HN will fill up with inflammatory content about whether it's ok that the companies that make them only sell a "censored" model that disallows synthesizing toxins.

I'm not sure if that is true. E.g. we might be able to synthesize smells like we cook food, where there is little to no danger of producing toxins from innocent ingredients.

"But I want the real, cancer-causing new car smell with benzene and styrene VOCs!"

Home theater odor playback was already tried in the 70's and 80's and it was a colossal failure. Argument about it is moot because it's a stupid idea that went nowhere, and that doesn't even begin to address attempting to make a mass spec digital nose. Plus, it's unlikely odors are noticed or perceived uniformly across individuals.

That's only if we're trying to replicate the smells physically though right? I mean, we could also trigger the brains neurons to "think" that we're smelling something. Not sure how we'd know which ones to fire, but with brain implants advancing I wouldn't be surprised if this became a reality one day.

This was exactly what I was contemplating when I read that article. I believe that olfactory-augmented innovations could undoubtedly enhance the value of devices that are currently only performing acrobatics (flipping and folding).

Don't forget VR helmets.

There have been multiple attempts at this. None have ever been successful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_scent_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_and_sniff

Novelty items at best, I can't imagine any VC getting excited about this stuff. But I didn't imagine they'd get excited about crypto either :)

Neither desirable nor possible.

My dad lost his sense of smell during a surgery and he says he doesn’t miss it in the slightest. Makes no difference in how good food tastes or anything else he encounters in life. In the modern world, it really is a “nice to have” sense.

I have always thought that food taste is much more smell than actual taste. Taste is rather limited in complexity with only 5 tastes, compared to hundreds of different smells. Or so I heard.

You are right. Last year I've got a virus named covid (probably you have heard of it). For a few days I've lost the taste of food. I mostly stopped to eat in such days. Eating food that tasted of nothing was totally unpleasant!

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