Month: February 2014

http://theconversation.com/is-that-a-risotto-in-your-pocket-the-app-that-smells-like-dinner-22443

By Adrian Cheok on 27 January 2014, 2.57pm GMT

Even though we are communicating in more ways than ever using online technology, we remain largely confined to the audiovisual when we do it. An app that has been on sale in Japan for some time aims to add smell into the mix.

Now that so many interactions are mediated by means of a screen, we find ourselves behind a window all the time. The virtual world of the internet does not permit us to use all of our senses; touch, taste and smell are off-limits.

The next frontier is allowing people to use all their senses to communicate over the internet and that’s what we’re trying to do at the Mixed Reality Lab, using the Scentee app. So instead of sending a picture of your dinner to a friend, you’ll be able to send them the smell. It can also be synced with your alarm clock to emit a whiff of freshly brewed coffee to get you going in the morning.

The app works when the user presses an icon on the smartphone screen. The app comes with a small tank which is plugged in to the smartphone and will light up and release a puff of scent is released from the top. The individual tanks are each filled with various food aromas so different smells can be sent.

Daily specials, straight to your nose

Given the close relationship between smell and taste, this technology has potential for those who want to change the taste of their food too. If you’re dieting, you might want to spray the smell of beef into the air when you’re eating a salad to trick yourself into thinking you are having something more substantial.

This kind of technology is already being taken up in the restaurant industry, where digital dining is becoming an increasingly popular way to deliver fine cuisine. Customers already get a mixed-media experience in some restaurants, such as when they listen to the sounds of the sea when eating fish.

My team of researchers is working with Mugaritz, a restaurant in Spain, to develop a digital food app that will enable customers to not only see the dishes on offer when they look at the menu but to be able to smell them too. So instead of only relying on traditional audio visual information to pick a meal, auxiliary technology bridges the gap between culinary creativity and customer experience.

We use Scentee to enable them to virtually prepare a recipe from Mugaritz and then smell the results when the aroma from the dish is emitted from the phone.

Private companies are likely to lead the charge in adopting them, as can be seen in the keenness with which restaurants are experimenting.

But there are also applications for health, such as for people with smell and taste disabilities. Their experience of the world could be enhanced using technology. It could also be used by using familiar smells to trigger memories for elderly patients, reminding them to do things such as take their medication.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Food/Features/2014/02/04/Fine-dining-chef-to-bring-SmellOVision-to-smartphones

-AFP Relaxnews

Diners can get preview of upcoming dinner.

A TRIPLE Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain is hoping to bring the concept of “Smell-O-Vision” to guests with the development of a new mobile app that will allow diners to get a whiff of their dinner from their smartphone.

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz restaurant has teamed up with a Japanese technology company to work on a digital app that would diffuse the smell of the restaurant’s dishes from a small plug-in accessory that attaches to the phone via the earphone jack.

After calling up a dish on the screen, the diffuser called Scentee will release a burst of fragrance from a cartridge that simulates the aromas of the meal.

The concept was unveiled at gastronomy festival Madrid Fusion in January, reports Fine Dining Lovers, and is being developed with a professor from City University in London.

Not only would the mobile app offer prospective diners a preview of their upcoming dinner or a chance to revisit their meal, the digital mobile device could “open up new vistas” for foodies who may not be able to travel to the San Sebastian restaurant, Professor Adrian Cheok told Fine Dining Lovers.

The latest collaboration could also pave the way for future scentagram-style social media apps that could allow friends to send one another scented messages, recreate virtual meals, and allow grocery store shoppers to smell their food before purchase, Cheok added.

For now, the device is pitched as a 4D experience that could be used as an alternative alarm clock – think coffee aromas nudging you awake – and an added layer to the video gaming experience with the smell of gunpowder released every time players click the “fire” button.

Scentee is now available worldwide and ships to 120 countries. The small balloon-like device retails for US$35 (RM117) while cartridges are US$5 (RM16). Aromas that are already available include strawberry, lavender, coffee and rosemary. The app is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

http://eater.com/archives/2014/02/03/mugaritz-is-developing-smart-phone-smellovision.php

Monday, February 3, 2014, by Paula Forbes

[Photos: Scentee, Mugaritz]

Chef Andoni Luiz Aduriz of Spain’s three Michelin-starred restaurant Mugaritz is developing a way for diners to smell his food via cellphone, the chef announced at Madrid Fusion last week. Aduriz is working with City University London’s professor Adrian Cheok to develop scents to be used with an add-on device that is operated by the app Scentee.

Mobile gadget emitting food flavours will be launched at Madrid Fusion on 28th January.

City University London News Release

Wednesday 22nd January 2014

City University London’s Professor Adrian Cheok spearheads the creation of the revolutionary Digital Food app
Mobile gadget emitting food flavours will be launched at Madrid Fusion on 28th January.

City University London announces the collaboration of Professor of Pervasive Computing, Adrian Cheok, in Madrid Fusion on28th January 2014, the most important event in the world of gastronomy.

In Spain’s capital city, Professor Cheok will join leading Michelin starred chef, Andoni Luiz Aduriz, of Mugaritz restaurant, San Sebastian and Dr Luis Castellanos, Founder and President of “El Jardín de Junio”, to unveil Scentee, a new mobile phone app and device that is attached to an Apple iPhone to permit the user to virtually prepare a recipe from the restaurant; the aroma from the finished dish is then released from the phone.

Professor Cheok says the new device will be revolutionary:

“The Digital Food app opens up new vistas for people around the world who may not have had the opportunity to physically dine in the restaurant to virtually experience the real smell of gourmet food prepared by one of the world’s top restaurants and chefs. The revolutionary new device brings the sense of smell to mobile phone communications.”

Professor Cheok, Chef Andoni and Dr Castellanos are proposing novel methods of digital olfaction and gustation for internet interaction, specifically for creating and experiencing the digital representation of food, cooking and recipes.

City researchers are spearheading new methodological approaches for digitally stimulating the sense of taste to enable remote communication through the sense of taste and smell. They aim to obtain a controllable and accurate actuation of taste and smell using digital methods for the benefit of industry and academic research and to improve the lives persons with smell and taste disabilities. The research will also improve the everyday lives of people wanting to further enhance their social networks with the addition of these modalities.

The Digital Food app being released at Madrid Fusion 2014 will lead to new innovations and industries for digital and internet communication, entertainment, office automation, and health therapy, using digitized mobile smell.

In November 2013, Professor Cheok and his research team were presented with the title of Honorary Experts for their participation as finalists in the Telefonica Hacking Bullipedia competition.