Smell-O-Vision

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Revision as of 20:52, 27 March 2010 by Aletheajoy (Talk | contribs) (Analysis)

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Looking for new ways to appeal to audiences after the popularization of television, Smell-O-Vision attempted to introduce a third sense into the film viewing process by piping scents related to the on-screen images into the movie theater through small vents in the back of each theater seat. The novelty did not catch on and due to various complications brought on by the endeavor, only one film, The Scent of Mystery, was ever released with the technology.


Technology

There were a few small attempts to involve the sense of smell in the film-going experience throughout the early days of cinema, but Smell-O-Vision attempted to technologize the idea in a way that had never been done before. The process involved adding a high frequency sound into the soundtrack that would direct the Smell-O-Vision machine to release one of the scents stored on a rotating rack.

Unlike other attempts to add smell to visual entertainment, Smell-O-Vision required converting the entire theater to suit the technology as wires need to be installed throughout the entire theater. This results in an increase in costs, as well as, potentially, more opportunity for problems if the wires were to break or become disconnected. To release the scent, the machine would send a small bit of the scent with a high amount of pressure into a small set of tubes that wrapped around each row in the theater. At each seat there was a small perforation in the tube, allowing a the scent to release for the intended enjoyment of the audience member. The scents themselves were chemically manufactured.

Analysis

As a failed technology, it is almost too easy to look back on Smell-O-Vision and understand why it failed to have the impression its creators had hoped, although clearly not all of these issues were apparent during the development of the novelty.

One major problem comes from the nature of smells. They are rather ephemeral, and depending on various environmental factors within the theater, such as airflow and ventilation, as well as the strength of the smell itself, the smell may linger longer or disappear more quickly than intended which may cause some film-goers to miss out on some of the scents at all and may lead others to experience an unfavorable mixing of unrelated aromas.

On a similar note, the technology works under the assumption that there will be no other scents in the theater to get in the way. However, if someone had a big bucket of buttery popcorn, or someone was wearing very strong perfume it would intrude on the experience and muddy the scents released.

Continued Attempts