Olfaction-enhanced multimedia: a survey application domains, displays and research challenges.

Abstract

Recently, the concept of olfaction-enhanced multimedia applications has gained traction as a step towards further enhancing user quality of experience. The next generation of rich media services will be immersive and multisensory, with olfaction playing a key role. This survey reviews current olfactory-related research from a number of perspectives. It introduces and explains relevant olfactory psychophysical terminology, a knowledge of which is necessary for working with olfaction as a media component. In addition, it reviews and highlights the use of, and potential for, olfaction across a number of application domains, namely health, tourism, education and training. A taxonomy of research and development of olfactory displays is provided in terms of display type, scent generation mechanism, application area and strengths/weaknesses. State of the art research works involving olfaction are discussed, and in addition, associated research challenges are proposed.