Tag Archives: Odors

‘Nose Telescope’ Lets Cops Figure Out How Much Cannabis Is In The Air

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nasal_2734051b

While an increasing number of cities across the US have stated allowing the recreational use of marijuana, some of them, like Denver, have also passed some peculiar laws in the wake of the legalization. In particular, in Denver, you can be fined up to $2,000 if it’s found that you have “polluted the atmosphere” with the smell of your grass. Yes, it seems concern over the city being overwhelmed with the skunky smell of pot was enough to prompt the passing of this law, and even though you’ll be allowed to smoke in the privacy of your home, your neighbours better not get a whiff. So, the police will be using a device like the one pictured above to determine if you’ve exceeded the, uh, pollution limit. The thing is called the Nasal Ranger Field Olfactometer and the the threshold for an offence is apparently if “the odour is detectable when the smoke is mixed with seven times the volume of clean air”.

It’s a little ridiculous looking, for sure, but if you guys see the police outside your house with this thing on their faces, at least you know what they’re up to.

VIA [ DigitalTrends ]

‘Madeleine’ is a Smell ‘Camera’ That Captures Scents Instead of Images

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Smell Camera

The Madeleine is a camera that’s as unusual as cameras get. Because instead of immortalizing memories by capturing images of it, it captures smells instead. The odor-capturing ‘camera’ of sorts was developed by designer Amy Radcliffe using technology that’s used in the perfume industry.

Amy explains: “The Madeleine works in much the same way as a 35mm camera. Just as the camera records the light information of a visual in order to create a replica The Madeleine records the molecular information of a smell.”

Here’s how it works: the source of the scent or odor is placed inside the glass dome that’s connected to the main part of the Madeleine. A pump then extracts and pulls scent molecules, which are then captured in a resin trap. This trap can then be sent off to a lab to be analyzed and maybe even re-created.

Amy dubs this concept as “scent-ography” and envisions this as an alternative way of recording memories, saying: “From manipulating our emotional well-being through prescribed nostalgia, to the functional use of conditioned scent memory, our olfactory sense could take on a much more conscious role in the way we consume and record the world.”

VIA [ C|NET ]

Smell-O-Vision on your smartphone: Scentee sends smells instead of texts (video)

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Scentee ChartPerf lets you send odors by smartphone

The dubious ability to send odors to your pals just became a distinct possibility thanks to the Scentee app and hardware from a company called ChatPerf. Seen in Japan, it works by letting you load a liquid refill into the device, which is then mixed and dispersed into the air at the command of an included app. The company noted a few of the myriad possible uses, like sending a smell to a friend who also has the device, perking up a yoga session, helping you wake up or making a shoot 'em up video game more lively with the odor of, say, gunpowder. It's still a prototype, but the company hopes to bring it to market with a variety of different odors, and launch it for iPhone or Android devices. Meanwhile, you can sniff it out in the video after the break.

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Source: Diginfo