An attempt to add natural smells to virtual reality

Startup Feelreal is trying to implement the long-expressed idea of ​​making virtual reality even more real. Team engineers are working on a special mask worn by a player in a VR game along with glasses like Oculus Rift, which can emit various odors in the gameplay process. In addition, some more weather and thermal effects are supported, turning the mask into some sort of “7-D cinema” that try to surprise the viewer with water splashes and gusts of wind while watching adapted films.



The gadget that makes the player look like Darth Vader contains a replaceable cartridge with a prepared set of smells. Depending on the settings of a particular game and your own preferences, the player will be able to feel the aromas of the ocean, jungle, fire, grass, dust, flowers and metal. For additional realism, the mask includes small heat sources, fans, water sprinklers, vibration motors and a microphone. In addition to games, the startup is developing a special Feelreal-player on which you can watch movies adapted for the gadget.
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TheVerge journalists were able to try out the novelty. Edie Robertson described his feelings as, to put it mildly, contradictory. He moved in a specially prepared demo game, in which most locations for the main smells were prepared. According to Robert, the mask creates sensations quite far from natural. For example, being close to some “hot object” causes the face to start blowing hot air from a close distance, as if from a hair dryer, creating even discomfort. After testing, Robertson noted that being in a Feelreal mask looks like an unusual and cruel torture.

Experiments with the introduction of olfactory and even taste sensations into virtual reality are far from new. In 2010, Japanese researchers with the help of VR-glasses and an odor generator were able to deceive a person’s taste perception. Scientists gave to the subject the usual tasteless cookies, which with glasses looked like an orange slice or a piece of fried meat. The visual row was confirmed by the corresponding odor. The person, having eaten cookies, turned out to be sure that he swallowed exactly the product, the smell of which he felt in glasses and which he saw in VR glasses.