Billboard that smells like French Fries tempts you to go to McDonald’s

There’s a chocolate drink factory near our place and when the wind blows down the main street, the smell of chocolate fills the entire area and every person is brought back to their childhood drinking a cup of hot cocoa in the morning. Also, on my walk to and from the office and my house, I pass by a McDonald’s store. When I’m especially hungry, that distinct smell of burger and fries (and sometimes chicken) actually tempts me to make a detour and enter the store to buy my dinner.

Designer: TBWANeboko and Raul & Rigel for McDonalds

There are just some food brands that triggers our olfactory nerves and makes us want to buy their products to satisfy this craving brought about by smell. McDonald’s believes they’re one of those brands and in Netherlands, they’re putting this to good, creative, and aromatic use. Their ad agency TBWANeboko worked with production company Raul&Rigel to put up a series of unbranded street billboards with just the red and yellow colors. When you pass by within 5 meters of them, you get to smell the distinct aroma of McDonald’s French Fries, hopefully triggering a craving.

These scented billboards actually have a hidden compartment in them to store the aforementioned fries. There’s also an internal heat and ventilation system that is responsible for intensifying this smell and tempt anyone passing by to get fries. Of course they are located strategically near a McDonald’s, 200 meters away in fact, so that you can sate that craving and get your favorite fries (and maybe other things) because of that billboard smell.

It’s a pretty creative way to take advantage of that feeling evoked in us when we smell something so distinct. It’s bad news though for people like me who are trying to stay away from carbs. Good thing that fries-scented billboard is only in the Netherlands, although passing by that McDonald’s every day is already temptation enough.

The post Billboard that smells like French Fries tempts you to go to McDonald’s first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Weird Japanese Gadget Detects If You Stink

I like to think that I’m a pretty clean person. I take a shower at least once or twice every day, use deodorant, brush my teeth regularly, and don’t roll around in the trash like Pigpen. But you never know if you smell bad, and just nobody has the heart to tell you. Well, this strange gadget from Japan is supposed to help figure out if you’re malodorous.

Simply place the Tanita ES-100 Handheld Body Smell Checker near an area you’re concerned about, and it will display the amount of stink on a scale from 1 to 10. A reading of 4 to 6 means it can smell something, while a 7 to 10 score indicates strong odors.

Now keep in mind that it doesn’t have a way of knowing if that smell is good or bad, so it could be that you just drowned yourself in too much cologne trying to cover up your stench, or it might mean that you’ve just been baking fresh waffles or chocolate chip cookies. Still, if you score towards the top of the list, you’ve probably gone overboard and it’s time to hose off.

If you’re worried about body odor, you can get the Tanita Body Smell Checker on Amazon for $145. Unfortunately, the current product reviews aren’t very good so maybe you need to buy another device to detect if your gadget stinks.

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This headset gives your nose a VR experience too

I’ll give the guys at Feelreal a pass because the VR market is only growing, so we may have to wait a decent amount of time before multisensory VR headsets don’t look like someone glued a toaster to your face. Its bulky design aside, the Feelreal is an attachment that adds an olfactory element to your VR experience. Compatible with the Oculus Rift, Go, HTC Vive, Samsung Galaxy VR, and the Playstation VR, the Feelreal snaps to the bottom of the headset, sitting right in front of the nose. It then releases smells that complement the media you’re watching by simulating, stimulating, or relaxing.

Compatible with a variety of games, movies, and multimedia content on platforms like YouTube VR, the Feelreal can generate a variety of aromas and smells, making you feel like you’re in the moment, whether it’s a forest, a race-track, or a battlefield. The Feelreal comes with a series of 9 aroma-vials that combine to create as many as 255 different types of distinct smells, from flowers and petrichor, to food, to grease or gunpowder. The Feelreal goes the extra mile by providing a tactile experience too! It comes with its own water-spray, microheater (to simulate heat) and fan (to simulate wind), adding different layers to your audiovisual VR experience.

Feelreal’s addition to VR opens up a world of opportunities. Designed not just for games and movies, the Feelreal can also be used for therapy/meditation or even in the culinary industry. The idea is definitely a novel one (and makes VR a truly multisensorial experience, as it should be), although I personally have issues with wearing a headset that practically feels like a brick tied to the front of my face… but that’s just because the concept and the backing technology is so nascent…

Designer: Feelreal

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This Candle Smells Like Chinese Takeout Food

If you want to enjoy Chinese takeout, but the MSG makes you all sleepy, then maybe the smell alone will be enough to satisfy you. I guess you could go to a Chinese restaurant and bother all of the customers by sticking your nose in their food, but trust me, there’s a better way; one that won’t get the police called on you. Simply try this candle that smells like takeout instead.

This funky candle is designed to smell just like Chinese takeout food. Each 16-ounce, 100% soy candle burns for 80 hours and captures the essence of Asian delicacies. Even if you are crazy about Chinese food, there’s no need to order a delivery every day. This is a more financially viable way to enjoy the experience. It has similar notes of soy, lemongrass and ginger so you can light the candle and just soak it all up. Please your senses without having to stuff yourself.

Or you could just leave some Chinese food out all week. That’s always an option, but that option comes with flies and mold, so it won’t smell nice for long. The candle is a better option.

I wonder if it makes you hungry again after an hour. Try one and find out over at the Cool Material shop for just $25.

[via Boing Boing via Geekologie]

This Panasonic Gadget Will Get the Stink Out of Your Shoes

Some people have really bad foot odor, and this makes their sneakers smell really bad. Electronics maker Panasonic thinks it has the answer. The company has introduced a new shoe deodorizing gadget that can apparently remove smells from shoes in just a few hours, restoring them to a non-foul smelling state.

Model, MS-DS100, uses Panasonic’s “nanoe X” technology to get rid of the unwanted stench. The gadget sits on top of the foot openings of both shoes, where it then generates fine-particle ions from the moisture in the air, dispersing them “to every corner of the shoes,” and eliminating odors.

The deodorizing process takes about 5-7 hours; presumably less for less stinky shoes and more for really nasty funky smell factories. Your mileage may vary. The device can be plugged into the wall and also operates on rechargeable batteries. So it seems like a great gadget for travelers who have a stinky shoe problem and no outlet. They say that each use costs you about a dollar, which is much cheaper and less wasteful than buying new shoes or even new pairs of Odor Eaters.

Your shoes will finally smell good again. Well, at least for a little while.

[via SlashGear]