Smell this: phone company tests scent downloads

by Rob Peters | April 7, 2008 at 05:54 pm | 864 views | 5 comments

A Japanese telecommunications company is testing a cell phone that can download and emit various scents by mixing "base smells" into a desired fragrance.

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer fresh flowers to Glade ones anyday. What would people use this for? "Hey baby, this is what it would have smelled like if I got you flowers."

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japanese cell phone users will test a new service that allows them to download fragrances, major telecommunications company NTT Communications Corp. said Monday.

Twenty participants using "Mobile Fragrance Communications" can download files of specific scents accompanied by music or video clips, the company said in a statement.

Scent playlists can be downloaded from "i-mode" mobile Web site run by the company's affiliate, NTT DoCoMo.

The service uses a handset's infrared port to transfer the "fragrance data" to a dedicated device similar to a plug-in air freshener that is loaded with a cartridge of base fragrances. The device then mixes them to create the chosen smell, which it then wafts out.

The service is a cell phone version of an existing fragrance download service for scent users' homes and offices. Trials will run for 10 days beginning Thursday.

The company is also testing a device that can be connected to the Internet so that a user can remotely program a scent from a mobile phone.

The company in 2005 launched a similar service for Japanese homes, allowing users to download different programs to emit smells from a 73,500 yen (US$720; euro460) machine.

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manfeet

at 19:18 on April 7th, 2008

I can't make calls on it, but it's cheaper than one of those new Japanese phones that emit scents...

manfeet has contributed a photo to this story.

Jer-m

at 21:56 on April 7th, 2008

This is my friend Diego, from Las Terenas in the Dominican Republic, smelling Bougainvillea flowers. He loves nature, everything plant and animal.

Jer-m has contributed a photo to this story.

myi4u

at 11:24 on April 8th, 2008

good stuff:

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. I heard this news quite sometime ago. But it's different device. It's basically a device connected to the USB port and it's for online perfume store. Whenever a user clicks on the link to test the perfume, the device will then emit the similar scent of the perfume. I wonder if anyone will just buy that device for purchasing perfume online.

However, emitting scents from phone is a much better choice.

shirley june

at 03:43 on April 9th, 2008

The fragrance of the real thing is always going to be best. Great story though!

shirley june has contributed a photo to this story.