librarians are gonna smell funny

Ought we think toward builing building libraries of fragrance (or odor, depending on your politics)? Have "quiet stinking rooms" with nose-phones for the private study of smells? We may. Looks like the scientists at TIT have developed a way to record and transfer smells digitally.

Via Warren Ellis, here's a quote from the CNEWS story:

"People stopping to smell the roses can now take that sweet floral fragrance home with them or even send it to a faraway grandmother thanks to a new gadget in Japan that records and replicates the world’s odours.

The new device, developed by scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, analyzes smells through 15 sensors, records the odour’s recipe in digital format and then reproduces the scent by mixing 96 chemicals and vapourizing the result. Creator Takamichi Nakamoto says the technology will have applications in food and fragrance industries where companies want to replicate odours.

But it could also be a boon for the digital world, allowing smells can be recorded in one place - by sensors in a mobile phone, for instance - and transmitted to appreciative noses halfway around the world…"

Which reminds me, spimes are gonna smell you back.