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Researchers bring smelly video games care of Half-life, Far Cry

Posted Apr 27, 2009 at 9:17AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Chris Redfield, Nintendo

Capcom Delays Versus Resident Evil 5 DLC - Image 1
"Chris Redfield, explain yourself this instant!"
"Umm, just testing out the new smell-tech?"

Technological devices emitting smells aren't entirely new - for example, Smell-o-vision. At least in terms of video games, the concept of applying this same smell-tech in games has been something I've read about since circa 1997. Here's some substantial development though.

Led by one Prof. Bob Stone, a team of researchers from the University of Birmingham are now developing their so-called Scent Delivery System (SDS) with internally developed games using the Far Cry and Half-Life SDKs. In their tests, they were able to trigger their SDS peripheral to emit various odors depending on what happened in-game.

Take for example: smelling a burnt tire, walking through a marketplace, or gunfire smoke residue. As PhD student Mark Blyth (he's also a former Royal Navy sailor) describes it:

The smell is activated when the virtual soldier walks past something like a market or a tiny side street, and the computer triggers the scent. What we are trying to discover is if smell enhances a personÂ’s perception.

Interestingly enough, this project is partially funded by the Ministry of Defense, and they want to use whatever findings of this technology as part of virtual military training for soldiers.

Currently, the SDS device is for the PC, but it doesn't take too much a leap of the imagination to have these mass marketed and available across various console platforms. In a 2008 interview with BBC, Prof. Stone thinks it's possible "within two or three years," that we could find this peripheral end up in the living room as part of console gaming.

Now imagine: using this baby while playing through Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead Space, and uh... Leisure Suit Larry? Do you dare put your nose through such horror?

Via Develop mag

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OMG this is so cool!

Soon we will play with all of our senses. We already have:

Seeing

Hearing

Smelling (sort of)

Feeling.

Now we only need something to taste (ugh, I don't want to play RE with this one turned on...) and a better form of touching, maybe some kind of elastic material which changes it's appearance. (a Blob comes to my mind LOL)

# ... — MADMAN-_-zZ 2009-04-27 11:58

sounds odd to me, I'm not sure if we want all kinds of smells circulating our room, when playing a game smelling things is probably the last thing thats on my mind...

# Sounds expensive — ptspyder 2009-04-27 13:00

Imagine having to buy expensive smell refills, that dont really add much if anything to the gaming experience. I dont think many gamers would get enough enjoyment out of it/use it often enough to make this an affordable and viable feature any time in the near future.

# UMM NOT SLWAYS A GOOD THING — narutosaiyan 2009-04-27 14:19

remember when johnny had the runs in MGS4? i dont think i would want to smell that! lmao, im kidding, sounds like pretty soon gaming will be completely realistic

# Stupid... — Speed 2009-04-28 03:52

This is a stupid idea. People are going to start getting crazy headaches for playing too long. And I'm sure nobody wants to smell half the things in a video game anyways. Imagine playing Resident Evil 5. Ugh. No thanks. Your room will smell like rotten carcasses. What if you couldn't get it out?

Imagine playing GTA San Andreas when you burn the cannabis fields. Oooooooh shiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiii iit.

# man.. — CloudX 2009-04-28 08:52

the picture is becoming a classic!

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Researchers bring smelly video games care of Half-life, Far Cry

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