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New Print-n-Sniff Ink Jet Will Likely Just Jam-n-Stink

by Warren Riddle on October 27, 2010 at 09:00 AM

smelling rosesScratch and Sniff stickers exploded in popularity during the glorious early '80s, but the trendy olfactory simulators rapidly faded into obscurity. For some reason, Japanese scientists apparently hope to revolutionize the forgotten, fragrant industry by incorporating scent production with modern technology. Keio University researchers reportedly worked in conjunction with Canon to hack -- and stink up -- an ink-jet printer (because, you know, office printers aren't adequately infuriating already).

The group installed four aroma vials in place of the printer's ink cartridges, so that a fleeting aroma emerges when the machine is triggered. The scientists hope to eventually combine a standard ink-jet printer with image-recognition software and more vials, so that the printer can automatically match scents with pictures. The working prototype -- which can produce a variety of scents, including lemon, lavender, grapefruit and apple -- is ready to debut at the upcoming Association for Computing Machinery's Multimedia event. So, if you happen to work in close proximity to a printer and don't like the aforementioned smells, you may want to investigate some other forms of aroma tech (even if they too were ridiculed at one point).

Tags: CanonPrinters, inkjet, inkjets, japan, KeioUniversity, peripherals, printer, ScratchNSniff, top, weird

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