A taste of smell

THERE'S a certain smell in the air and it's making me heady. Let me explain. For ages, technology has tried to tame human perceptions. While the eye was making do with still images till the 20th century, the ear had not recorded sound till the 19th century and cinema hadn't added sound till the 1920s, the nose had been neglected.

Treated all along as a poor third cousin, the nose is at last getting the attention that it deserves. As September came to an end, a panel discussion in Oakland, California, organised by DigiScents, sees the internet as a huge smelly opportunity. If DigiScents' vision of the future is accurate, every personal computer will come in with a plug-in apparatus analogous to a printer that will waft odour in the general direction of the nose. Experts gathered at this venue to ostensibly thrash out olfactory issues were, in fact, coming up with a proposal to sell the company's odour machine which they call "iSmell".

Joel Bellenson, the CEO of DigiScents touted "iSmell" as a marvellous invention, not perhaps as important as the wheel, but crucial neverthless, and a lot more fun. He also underlined the complexity of the human olfactory system, neglected by industry and a potential gold mine. Nature magazine, in its coverage of the Human Genome Project, pointed out that human beings have four genes for vision, but a thousand for smell. We may eat and taste with our eyes and taste buds but food specialists say that a lot of what we know as food flavour is, in fact, olfactory. At the same discussion, Avery Gilbert, Vice President, Sensory Research and Development, DigiScents, pointed out that the nose seems to lead more directly to emotions than the eyes or ears. The magic machine, New York Times reports say, contains a palette of 128 chemical odours that could be combined to generate almost an infinite number of smells. Users, by clicking smells, can manipulate odours to create a signature perfume. DigiScents, in an online press release, declares that it plans to sell iSmell early next year for $50 to $200.

While we may sniff at it in scorn, sharper, more experienced business minds are taking this very seriously. Procter and Gamble have signed an agreement with DigiScents to share research. A good guess would be that more food, beverage and assorted companies around the world would be quick to follow the scent trail.

AromaJet.com, who specialise in "commercialising aroma generating technology" is working with video game companies to add smell as an additional component to their products. If smell is what is connected, more simply and intimately to emotions, will it be long before the recipe for "fear" or "success" is unravelled? Something to mull over.

The experience, according to William Grimes of the Times, is "like entering a cave". The viewer is shown an online supermarket on the screen with the different departments represented by different icons. Grimes recalls clicking on pastry and then pecan pie and he says "it smelt like banana".

The 128 chemical odours can lead to a gamut of smells. While investors que up to make time for the new game in town, no one is speculating how long this utopia will last. Silicon valley, most reports say, is in trouble if only an average of ten per cent of internet startups succeed. Time magazine reports that Amazon.com may also be in the red. Washtech.org, an online association that considers itself "a voice for the digital workforce" reports that Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, in a bid to contain his company's financial ailments, will begin to outsource some of his work to overseas companies, in this case, Daksh.com (based in Gurgaon, India), that solicits "customer care specialists". Daksh.com will be paying its employees much more than Amazon.com do. An average Amazon.com employee would make around $11 an hour and turn in a 40 hour week which would earn him or her about $1900 to $2000 a month. Daksh.com will pay its employees Rs. 4000, and no, they don't get to say on their record that they worked for the successful U.S. based company. Of course, more sweatshop labour.

There are a number of companies like Daksh.com with offices in California and India whose modus operandi is to find ways to outsource labour. And they are all doing very well, according to the Nasscom 1999 report and will grow exceptionally well in the future.

Therefore, while we miss the "scentsational opportunity", we will most likely get to smell the grit.

DURGA RAGHUNATH

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Section  : Science & Tech