Abstract: Human Computer interaction is typically constrained to the use of sight, hear, and touch. This paper describes an attempt to get over these limitations. We introduce the smell in the interaction with the aim of obtaining information from scents, i.e. giving meaning to odours and understand how people would appreciate such extensions. We discuss the design and implementation of our prototype system. The system is able to represent/manage an immersive environment, where the user interacts by means of visual, hearing and olfactory informations. We have implemented an odour emitter controlled by a presence sensor device. When the system perceives the presence of a user it activates audio/visual contents to encourage engaging in interaction. Then a specific scent is diffused in the air to augment the perceive reality of the experience. We discuss technical difficulties and initial empirical observations.

Authors: V. Cozza, G. Fenu, R. Scateni, A. Soro.
Walk, Look and Smell Through.
ACM SIGCHI Italian Chapter (CHItaly 2011) Adjunct Proceedings (poster).
Alghero, Italia, Settembre 2011.