19
smellulator (sh.itjust.works)

What's stopping us from making smellulators, for games or movies?

Vietnamwar videogame: smell of napalm in the morning.

The sims: baby pooped.

Survival game: that lump of flesh is rotting.

Smell you later

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Technologically, nothing. They've even been made before! (Japanese scientists even made a device that would let you taste things!)

The problem is, nobody actually wants to buy them so nobody is making them for people to not buy because that would be a waste of time and money. Knowing that death and sewers are super common in games, I can't say I would want smell-o-vision myself.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago
[-] captainjaneway@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

TL;DR it worked but was often considered a poor, synthetic, replacement for the real world scents. Some people liked it, but most seemed to dislike it.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 9 months ago

"Smell-o-Vision" was predated by "AromaRama" and followed by "Odorama" and some other scratch and sniff attempts. Various motion or "4D" rides have also tried to incorporate smell, then often drop it.

Audiences just don't like it.

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 14 points 9 months ago

Images flash by and disappear. Sounds may resonate a little but are basically gone as soon as you stop making them.

Smells linger.

Imagine the cattleyard smell still hanging in the air when the scene has changed to milady's boudoir, or to the fancy restaurant.

[-] freebee@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

good point.

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

Too complex, too many inputs needed, it would be a proprietary exploitation product nightmare like liquid ink paper printers, initially bringing such a product to market would make it cost a fortune, and it would need widespread adoption before the economy of scale could kick in.

[-] ving_thor@lemmy.one 2 points 9 months ago

Fascinating. I thought smell-o-vision was just a joke in Futurama.

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

I saw a theatrical performace in 1997, called The Peplum by theatre company Royal de Luxe.

It included 'odorama', a contraption that looked like a TV studio camera on dolly rails across the front of the stage, that sprayed the audience stands with about 6 different smells throughout the performance.

One of the smells was horse manure, which was a nervous shock for the audience. Yes it smelt like horse poo.

A very memorable performance, because of the smells, but also the exceptional company behind it.

[-] jeffw@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I remember a 3D show at Disney that did this when I was a kid. William Castle did something like that once too iirc

Edit: William Castle did the thing where he shocked viewers with electricity, not the smell stuff.

Edit 2: I think it was this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Tough_to_Be_a_Bug!

They released a stinky smell when the stink bug character was on screen.

[-] Lemvi@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 9 months ago

Smell is a pretty complex thing.

For vision, we only have four different kinds of receptors, which can be stimulated by electromagnetic waves on a one-dimensional spectrum.

For smells, we have about 350 different kinds of receptors. Also, they can't easily be stimulated by electromagnetic waves, but only by molecules, which are much more difficult/costly to transport to their corresponding receptors.

[-] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 9 months ago

Mmm...styrene, benzene, and other carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons...

[-] db2@lemmy.world -3 points 9 months ago

It's a mystery who just read Ready Player One. A complete mystery.

[-] Rayspekt@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

Nah he watched Futurama.

[-] freebee@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago

Never heard of it

this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
19 points (73.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35681 readers
932 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS