When watching your favorite movie, you often want to fully immerse yourself in its atmosphere, but so far this has only been possible at the level of visual and audio perception. 

To enhance the effect of perceiving what you see, there has always been a lack of such detail as smell. 

First attempts to improve the immersive experience

The ancient Greeks discovered a way to completely immerse a person in what they saw or heard. One poem mentions that in order for the guests of a feast to smell the smell that the host wanted to convey, the wings of pigeons were doused with aromatic oils. Perfumes and aromatic substances also played a significant role in religious rites.

Scents in the film industry

After the emergence of the film industry, there were many attempts to add aromatic accompaniment to the demonstration of visual content. Thus, in 1916, during the Rose Bowl, the owner of a movie theater filled the hall with the scent of roses.

Later, Smellovision appeared, which was presented in 1939 at the World's Fair in New York. It consisted of a certain number of pipes attached to the seats of the audience and controlled by an operator who had to switch the scents according to the switching of the image on the screen. 

However, the development was not in great demand and eventually began to work intermittently - the smells were scattered and the technology was delayed.

In the 1990s, the American company DigiScents began developing iSmell home theater devices. The odors were generated by a replaceable cartridge inside the device. It had 128 different scents in its arsenal, based on which it could combine them to generate the right one. 

Reviving and improving the technology of scent reproduction

At the international exhibition of household appliances, CES 2023 held in Las Vegas, the Japanese company Aromajoin presented the Aroma Shooter Wearable device. This technology allows users to smell movies and video games. 

Visitors of CES 2023 were able to test this device with their own hands and enjoy the aromas of cherry, peach, and grape blossoms while watching the anime Quintessential Quintuplets, in the game Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, visitors smelled smoke, coffee, cloves, and caramel.

The Aroma Shooter Wearable device works with the "world's first automated video platform" AromaPlayer, which allows you to "digitize" a scent by generating a smell that matches what you see on the screen. 

Based on the principle of devices developed by iSmell in the 90s, this device will be equipped with aroma cartridges that can be selected on the manufacturer's website. 

The technology of cartridge development has also improved significantly, so each one contains solid materials, not gas or liquid. This innovation should provide a brighter and longer-lasting effect.

Switching between fragrances takes 0.1 seconds, the combination of scents is instantaneous, without any delays, and the cartridge will serve the user for about 3 months.

A desktop version was presented at CES 2023, but the authors are already developing a wireless version that will be able to interact with VR and AR devices.

Currently, the device costs $998, and each cartridge will cost the user an additional $54.