Filed under: Research, Trends by Digado

Replicating the five senses (vision, touch, smell, sound, taste) in virtual environments has been an inspiration for science fiction for as long as the genre has been around. Complete immersion in Virtual Worlds such as ‘the Matrix’ or ‘Snow Crash’ always seems to be the ‘final step’ into virtuality. But how far are we really from being able to smell a virtual flower, taste digital coffee or feel the texture of a programmed pillow?

Vision and Sound

So far the we have managed to replicate 2 out of 5 effortlessly. Sound can be digitally replicated quite easy, and in very realistic ways depending on your sound systems. Vision has been around for ‘ages’ as well, but depends heavily on where you consider it to be truly ‘replicated’. One could argue 3D is enough, others place the bar at Augmented reality, vision not limited to the confinements of the screen.

Replicating Smell

Due to its ‘physical’ nature it was a challenge to turn the actual smell into data. However, in Tokyo (where else?) scientists have made a series of breakthroughs since back in 1999, successfully narrowing all scents down to a small base of replicatable smells. Any smell can be recorded, analysed and turned into a formula, then the machine creates ‘vapours’, copying anything from ‘rotten fish and fruits to gasoline‘. The technology is far from ‘consumer ready’ but it has already run several test runs in theatres.

Touch trough Haptic Technologies

Is touch translatable to digital data? Of course it is! Haptic Technologies are in a far state of development, and the most advanced applications are already being deployed in the medical sector. Surgeons perform operations using this technology as an interface to their tools by touch. But it gets even more interesting where the ‘interface’ - the Haptic Object - is able to simulate the surface material of the object you are touching in Virtuality.

The Tasting Machine

This seems to be the most elusive one of the 5 senses. It would seem that emulating taste should not be too difficult, as there are only the five well-known tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. However, many details of our taste system and the working of our taste receptors are still unknown. Despite this a Japanese company claims to have developed a tasting device called the ‘electronic tongue’. However, its uses are extremely limited. Until we are able to develop this further we will have to do with this…

Posted on: February 11, 2008 | Share on: