Design beyond vision
There is an obsession with ocularcentrism designing everything to please the eye and ignoring other senses. Scentiment is an endeavor to create a sensory experience beyond vision and practice multisensory design. The team decided to explore the sense of smell as it sits at the bottom of the senses pyramid.
Smell is badass. It has no visual representation or tangible sensation.
Scentiment Concept
Scentiment is an exploration of sensory interactions between people who are far away from each other. A sensory device creates a gentle and intimate connection between close people through the sense of smell.
[1] The Mind
A person creates or chooses his/her signature scent from the collection of perfumes engineered by the Scentiment Lab. This could be the scent that represents a person or one that relates to shared memories with the friend. Once the scent is selected, the devices are paired so that the input from one device corresponds to an output on the other device.
After two people exchange Scentiment with each other, they can now communicate in a unique way. When one misses the other, they blow into their device, which will release the chosen scent and transmit it to the receiver’s device. The scent will trigger an intimate moment of connection between the two.
[2] The Gut
The sensory device is driven by Arduino Genuino board that is connected to a microphone and a small fan. Once a microphone senses a blow, the board passes a signal to trigger a release of a fragrance by activating a small fen on another device.
[3] The Face
The team explored different options for interactions and form factor to hone the concept to a simple solution that's just right.
Interaction
My personal challenge was creating easy interactions that deliver a special experience and emotional response without using buttons and screens. Core interaction of messaging is a blow as it is a very intimate and poetic act.
Making
Kill The Darling
It is always hard but so necessary. One of my learnings during this project was detaching myself from the idea you fell in love with. Multisensory design triggers my curiosity a lot, especially a sense of smell and taste. One of our ideas was an eatable interface for Netflix to choose a film together with friends.
