There's so much bad technology in the world that Japan even has a beautiful word for pointless gadgets: "chindogu." There's another splendid Japanese term, one that companies are apparently holding training sessions on how to combat: "sumeru harasume...
We can all agree getting up each morning to go to work really sucks. Some people have a harder time getting up than others. If you are of the sort who needs a little extra help, the Sensorwake Trio might be the ticket. This is an alarm clock that wakes you not just with sound, but smells.
There are a variety of aromas to choose from like coffee, the beach, forest, or peppermint. I imagine the beach scent smells faintly of coconuts and dead fish. The wake-up process takes three minutes, and starts off emitting your smell of choice. The clock then starts to brighten to wake you with light. After the smell and light, your actual alarm goes off with a melody of some sort.
Right now you can order the Sensorwake Trio along with two scent capsules for $59 on Kickstarter. Additional capsules will sell for $15 for a six pack. The project has raised over $115,000 as of this writing, well over its $30,000 goal.
I’m going to invent the world’s best alarm clock. It will have no smells or lights. The only sound it makes will be that of a dog puking because that sound will wake anyone.
There are a couple of reasons VR is still not a completely immersive experience. Firstly, the eye immediately knows it’s being tricked when it can’t focus on objects in 3D (this remains VR’s biggest challenge yet). The other reason is the lack of a completely sensorial experience. We’ve got the eyes, ears, and a bit of the tactile senses covered, but taste (not entirely important unless you’re eating in VR) and smell remain unconquered. Vaqso aims to change that with its snap-on olfactory engine. The Vaqso is capable of attaching onto any current VR headset (via a cradle) right on its base, so that it can engineer smells that, with the help of tiny fans, go and tingle your sense of smell. The device is so far capable of generating smells like coffee, chocolate, and even that of perfume, which would probably work pretty well for a limited set of applications (my mind immediately jumps to the NSFW kind, which is one of VR’s biggest markets). With Vaqso’s open API, they’re hoping to expand its possibilities, allowing it to successfully integrate into industries like the gaming industry or the tourism industry. Wouldn’t it be just great if you could smell things like gunpowder, etc., while gaming? Or perhaps the divine salty smell of the sea or the mountains while looking up your next tourist destination?!
Designer: Kentaro Kawaguchi
