I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how media has tried to create fully immersive experiences—engaging not just sight and sound, but all the senses. With the rise of VR, we’re seeing more and more devices aimed at adding new layers of realism.
One idea that’s been on my mind: scent simulation.
A few years ago, I came across Cilia, an open-source project sometimes referred to as “Smell-O-Vision.” It’s essentially a scent-emitting system you can sync with different triggers. Imagine using this alongside your VR headset and an SR6: as you get close to your waifu’s face, you catch a whiff of shampoo… or maybe even the faint scent of morning breath.
With the right setup, you can map different scents to different parts of a 3D model’s body. Head = shampoo, torso = perfume, feet = …well, you get the idea.
Out of curiosity, I ordered two different brands of scent cartridges from AliExpress to test with it. And yes… they really do sell body-part-inspired scents. It’s a little sketchy, but honestly, so is this whole project. And that’s half the fun.
Ive made my own proto concept of a modular setup Inspired by the Cilia STL and compatible with the Gridfinity project.
Links:
- The cilia project with 3d prints available at: https://hapticsol.com/
- Linus tech Tips Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt9y6v7FNAY
- STS for my prototype https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k8IjqMmSoBhe9aTMYImKq_sKweXy0sOX/view?usp=sharing
- Scents from ali express