Led by the Nose

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Robert Chalmers. Led by the Nose

Contents

1. Merging worlds

2. The first sniff

3. Noses

4. Signals

1. Acknowledgements

2. About the author

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The 2,000 Year Old Man was not noted for his insight or perception: he recalled having snubbed such figures as Moses and Jesus (“a thin lad who came into the store but never bought anything”) opting instead to worship “this guy called Phil.” His fears over the pervasiveness of artificial scent, however, are proving to have been a rare moment of prescience.

To most of us, who have long been accustomed to the computerised broadcasting of sound and vision, the idea of transmitting smells digitally still seems absurd. On June 12 1977, viewers of Reports Extra, a late-night BBC show broadcast in Manchester, were shown a large cone fitted with antennae. The presenter introduced the device as a “Raman spectroscope” capable of radiating smell directly into a viewer’s living room through their television set. “A pleasant country smell,” he explained, “not manure.” The station received 172 calls from credulous or intoxicated Mancunians, the great majority asserting that their houses were now agreeably perfumed with the scent of newly-mown hay or grass. Only 16 respondents reported no smell. Two complained that the Raman technology had triggered their hay fever. The success of this experiment in the power of suggestion, conducted by Michael O’Mahony, a Bristol University psychology lecturer, was the more remarkable in that the BBC had broadcast a very similar item as its April Fool’s joke only two years earlier[2].

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The video from the Mugaritz shows customers embarking on the traditional first course, which requires each of them to prepare a broth by crushing herbs and spices in a mortar. Armed with a smartphone loaded with the Scentee app, a prospective visitor can simulate the grinding action by rotating a finger on the phone’s display, where an image of the bowl appears. As the ingredients appear to disintegrate on the screen, the Scentee emits aromas of black pepper, sesame and saffron.

“The idea,” says Cheok, “is that you can virtually experience some of the food in the restaurant.”

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