I wasn’t sure whether to put this here or in Cafe Society, (my apologies if this has been asked before on the SDMB.)
With all of the technical advances in designing televisions over the years, has there ever been a workable design for a television that would let people “smell” the action on the screen (besides being able to hear and see it?)
Would such a feature even be technically possible, and if so, how might they go about it?
I am not sure if you know this or not but Smell-O-Vision was a real invention that never caught on. Smells require complex combinations of chemicals that aren’t easy to sustain in a home appliance.
Possible or not, there’re other things to consider, such as people really wouldn’t want to smell some shows.
You might want to smell, say, the dish being made by a chef on a cooking show or something, but would you really want to smell a show where the heroes are down searching the sewers or something?
Every College Stoner to RA: No, man, we weren’t doing anything man. Just watching That 70s Show in Smell-O-Vision, man. Hey…you want to go in on a pizza?
Check this out: Sniff That Website. The follow-up can be found here: DigiScents ISmell – PC World’s 24’th worst tech invention
Note also the comments at the first linked page regarding John Waters’ film Polyester, which was originally released in ODORAMA, inspired by, or an homage to, Smell-O-Vision.
I was lucky enough to see it in its initial release back in '81 in Denver, where the ODORAMA cards were distributed from the ticket booth (sadly, most subsequent showings in art house theaters and the like didn’t have the cards to distribute). I will remember it vividly for the rest of my life as the ultimate zenith of but-gusting hilarity and the one experience in my life in which I and my best friend of that time, Ellen (I miss you, El!), literally could not breathe and very nearly passed out because we were both hog-laughing so uncontrollably hard at one of the ODORAMA gags in particular that even slapping each other hard in the face did nothing whatsoever to allow us to catch our breath. Ever since then (we both coincidentally moved from Denver to San Diego within a few months of each other), all we needed to do when we saw each other was to say “Number 8!” and the hog-chortling began anew.
Ah, the good ol’ days… (where’s the weepy “smiley”?)
I can only imagin the great difficulty in clearing one smell when the scene quickly changes to another odor. I suppose if everybody has tubes up their noses, it could be done effectively. I guess ODORAMA solved this by leaving it up to the audience to scratch the card at the appropriate time. It sounds very distracting.
Hmm… The IMDB entry claims Number 8 was “new car smell”, which means either that IMBD is wrong or that we were. If it’s the latter, it’s only because the lack of oxygen caused by our uncontainable pig-laughter left permanent damage to our tiny little brains.
The reason we found it so hilarious is entirely due to Waters’ timing: The ODORAMA number would flash on and off on the screen to instruct you what number to smell and exactly when to smell it. They lulled you into comfort by displaying roses on the screen while “Number 1” flashed on the screen and you smelled roses (well, cheap perfume anyway). But we weren’t stupid; we knew we had some more “interesting” smells coming, especially considering this was a John Waters movie. Our “guess” was confirmed with “Number 2”, which, of course, fulfilled exactly what one would expect from that number.
But the “Number 8!” (or 7, if IMDB is correct, which I’d go down fightin’ against if fightin’ wasn’t out of style, as The Firesign Theater insists it is) was a perfect example of perfect comedic timing. The action on the screen led you to believe that you’d smell something else when “Number 8!” flashed on the screen, but after exactly the right pause after the number flashed, someone ripped a very juicy one. Ga! 
That’s pretty low humor for a Firesign Theater fan, whose humor is often quite cerebral, but my thinking is that’s exactly why we both found it so mind-bogglingly hilarious.
Thanks, John!
No, whatever it may lead one to suspect, it wasn’t distracting in the least for someone sitting in the theater. It was comedic gold!
I can’t think of a worse idea than Smell-o-Vision, Odorama or whatever you want to call it.
First, everybody’s sense of smell is a little different somewhat more or less acute and it is linked to the sense of taste.
Slum Dog Millionaire: do you really want to smell the slums of Mumbai? I guess it’s up to you. Fetid waste is not pleasant.
Shawshank Redemption: Do you really want to be subjected to the smell of a prison and sewers for 2 hours? (Prisons smell awful, sewers smell worse.)
Six Feet Under and all of the movies where they have dug up a grave: Do you want the smell of death?
Apocalypse Now: Do you really want to smell Napalm in the morning?
Just examples. Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it.
The beauty of movies is that the can convey an experience without assaulting you with the accompanying ugly realities.
I can just imagine it, they open up the casket and half the audience vomits. Wonderful!
Oooh… Dirty Jobs in Smell-a-Vision! :eek:
I’ve no doubt it was funny, but I can’t imagine watching Jodie Foster creeping through a basement to then be told to scratch off number 5 for the lotion smell. Comedy is a different beast, especially if the delivery incorporates the mode.
I am lucky enough to still have my ODORAMA card. (and how bizarre is this…at this very moment Anthony Bourdain is singing the praises of John Waters on No Reservations!)
Here’s a lengthy article from one of my favorite magazines, Invention & Technology that focuses on 3D movies, but also has a fairly lengthy sidebar on Smell-O-Vision vs. Aromarama (scroll to bottom)
The Gimmick that Ate Hollywood
“When Hollywood added a new dimension to the movies, customers gasped—and then yawned.”
The big problem is that, unlike sight with three primary colors, or taste with five primary flavors, there are a huge number of primary smells (probably thousands, though I don’t know if anyone’s ever counted them). So your choices are to have a TV (or theater, or whatever) with a supply of thousands of different chemicals to mix in the right proportions for every smell you might want, or a smaller supply of a few smells which show up often or which the directors find artistic value in, leaving all the other smells uncovered, or having a custom-made set of smells for every show that you’d have to buy in advance.
Heh. I suspect that in the pile of crap that I own, there lies my Odorama card that I got at the Magic Lantern Theater in Isla Vista.
Smell-O-Vision will work pretty well once design non-invasive nerve stimulus helmets. Of course, by then we’ll have mastered restoring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, so the the odor aspect of it will be less impressive.
I disagree with Spartydog. Obviously, you can turn off Smell-O-Vision, just like video or audio. I’d love to see Chocolat or Julie & Julia with Smell-O-Vision.
What if they had a yeast infection? You might not be so enthusiastic.
Ahh, my version of non-invasive nerve/neuron stimulation is not actually introducing any infective agents at all! It’s only stimulating the olfactory bulb or the brain itself. There is no risk other than complete mental breakdown due to the artificial overstimulation of your FART neurological sensing system.
And I don’t even know that the number of “primary” receptors is the biggest problem. I suspect the problem is the way they interact and bind to the receptors. Some odors will bind to the receptors so tightly, you are effectively shut out from smelling it, but others may bind very quickly. Does a rose still smell like a rose after you’ve been smelling it for a minute? Also, you have to clear the palate between scenes. Some smell will linger.
Some of the attractions at Disneyland and Disney World have a smell feature, but the number of smells is small and engineered as part of the attraction. I think the best use is on the “Soarin’” ride in EPCOT, where the ride vehicle is a kind of hang-glider simulator and the 3-story tall movie screen shows aerial views of different parts of California. You have the sensation of flying over the ocean, and an ocean smell is pumped into the theater, to be replaced by an orange smell for the orange grove scene and pines for the forest scene. The smells are subtle, and are mostly incidental to the main experience of gliding over the landscape.
They also have a lovely “stink-bug” smell to enhance the “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” 3-D movie.