When it comes to human senses, we've found ways to reproduce the look and sound of the real world reasonably accurately. There are even technologies for reproducing the feel of certain experiences, such as flight and car simulators. But the problem of reproducing smell is much more intractable. The 1960 SmelloVision experiment is a case in point. This involved some 30 odors that were released into the cinema at certain times during a movie.

When it comes to human senses, we've found ways to reproduce the look and sound of the real world reasonably accurately. There are even technologies for reproducing the feel of certain experiences, such as flight and car simulators. But the problem of reproducing smell is much more intractable. The 1960 SmelloVision experiment is a case in point. This involved some 30 odors that were released into the cinema at certain times during a movie.

In the visual and aural realms, we very often interact with reproduced versions of an original -- a photograph of a scene, a recording of a concert. And as long as you know what the original looked and/or sounded like, it's easy to tell whether it's an accurate reproduction. For smells, the same does not hold true. Unlike audio or visual reproductions, it's hard to transmit a reproduction of a smell to someone. There have been a few attempts, of course, but while something visual can be mimicked using wavelength and luminance and sound is a matter of copying the tone, odors depend on the brain's perception of molecules.