First Virtual Reality Headset to Include Smells Coming

Human Factors engineers have been working since the onset of the Covid-19 lockdowns, and remote working via Zoom (and other software), to understand why productivity from home has not kept track with productivity at the office.  Maybe their explanation didn't surprise them or won't surprise you, but it sure surprised me; what's missing is the smells of the office.  They don't have detailed lists of the smells, but it could include the mix of perfumes with different coffees, or maybe the mix of lunches in the break room microwave oven (we used to call that "mullet in the microwave" back in the old days).  

It turns out that the virtue reality/augmented reality and metaverse industry was already pursuing the idea of digitally synthesized odors (DSOs) to bring a new dimension of realism.  Imagine playing a video game in which you can smell an attacker sneaking up behind you; or adding odors to a completely virtual world like that in Avatar.  You can almost smell the gaming software industry money flowing in. Now consider it in a virtual office sense.  Maybe two years ago you flew into Mumbai and smelled that... aroma... that starts as soon as the aircraft air system starts to take in external air.  Maybe next year you can smell Mumbai at home. 

Scratch that.  Bad idea.  From what I've heard from co-workers, Mumbai is pretty excruciating.  If going on trips to places like Mumbai makes you feel important and you like that, you'll probably get good feelings when you smell the Mumbai air.

At least one manufacturer, YoYo Dyne Entertainment, in Grover's Mill N.J., is aiming to bring a first-generation olfactory-enhanced (OE) headset to market in time for the 2022 holiday season, despite setbacks caused by two competing DSO technologies competing to dominate this emerging market.  

As with most technologies that show up overnight, the history of the tech behind this "Smell-o-Vision" headset goes back years and is actually a product of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

Digital odor synthesis was invented in the mid-1990s as part of a DARPA research program and has proven its value in several generations of the U.S. Army's battle training simulators. As reported in the April 1, 1995 issue of Electronic Design, the original DSO system, developed by Dr. Apri L'Fuhl, was based on a recently discovered class of organic compounds, known as "Primary Odorants (POs)." 

While each PO has its own distinctive smell, they can be combined in precise ratios with one or more other POs to create a wide range of completely different scents. Modern DSO systems typically use a small cartridge, containing an array of capsules each containing a different PO compound. Each capsule is equipped with a small heating element and a MEMS-based valve that can precisely meter the compound into a vortex mixing plenum where the desired scent is created.

Thanks to the POs’ unique properties, it takes only takes 32 different compounds to produce tens of thousands of unique odors. When Dr. L'Fuhl's team sought to commercialize the technology in the early 2000s, they introduced a new collection of 64 POs that could produce what they referred to as high-definition digitally synthesized odors (HD-DSOs).

The problem with this sort of research is that individual perceptions of odors is very individual.  What's needed is a standard way of measuring and rating the DSOs, as well as standard ways of evaluating and reporting the results.  Enter the Microsoft Nose.  Our noses are connected to the brain over massively parallel neural pathways from the roof of the nose into the brain.  That information needs to be conveyed to the processors in the gamer's headset.  Literally, they needed a nasal network. 

Image credit: Microsoft

YoYoDyne was the first company to license the technology, designed into the OE-VR headset seen in the top picture.  The headset will be entering production early this summer in a repurposed automotive accessory plant, located just outside Flint, Mich.

Branded as the Overthruster-Full Impact, the OE-VR headset will take its place as the flagship product in YoYo Dyne's 2023 collection of its iconic Overthruster series of gaming gear. With a retail price of $799.42, it will come with a basic 32-odorant cartridge, suitable for general-purpose use. The company also will be introducing a series of specialized cartridges that can be used to further enhance specific applications.

“We'd anticipated that there would be a big demand for a high-def cartridge that could create exotic odors to complement the alien landscapes that players encounter in many science-fiction-based VR games” said John Bigbooty, YoYo Dyne's VP of marketing. “We also expect our 'Smell the World' cartridge to be very popular, especially, if Heaven forbid, another nasty COVID variant forces us back into lockdown.”

VP Bigbooty is ahead of the crowd.  He's already introduced a product that he expects to be a Big Thing for the working-at-home set, after consultations with Human Factors Engineering consultants where he found a large percentage of former office workers who now work remotely who expressed a deep nostalgia for the smells of their old workplace.

“To meet this demand, we developed the Daily Grind odor cartridge. When combined with a small software app, it can take a remote worker through a full week of the routine and random smells they miss.”

“We worked hard to faithfully reproduce the environment that office workers call their comfort zone” continued Bigbooty. “When you log in to work, your Full Impact VR headset will greet you with the smell of fresh-brewed coffee that will become increasingly stale as the day goes on. Your day will also be punctuated by occasional bursts of ozone and toner from a virtual copying machine as well as random whiffs of body odors from your virtual co-workers.”

Main source for this article is electronics trade journal, Microwaves & RF, in an overview article on the technology.