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German Firms Patent Scented Text Messaging

Posted by timothy on Thu May 01, 2008 07:47 AM
from the no-caller-id-tie-in-please dept.
Cellphones It's funny. Laugh. Communications Patents Technology
praps writes "Two German companies have patented technology for sending scented text messages between mobile phones. The chip, which carries a range of around 100 pre-defined scents, has been developed by the Institute of Sensory Analysis and interactive services firm Convisual and will be on the market in one to two years. Naturally, the makers think that the chip will be used for sending pleasant odors to friends and family — vanilla, rose and Christmas cinnamon are on the list — but surely the claim to be able to send 'the smell of the beach and sunshine' is a little optimistic? SMS stink bombs cannot be far away."
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Submission: Scented text messaging patented by German firms by praps (870215)
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  • OK, someone's gotta say it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Critical Facilities (850111) * on Thursday May 01 2008, @07:50AM (#23261966) Homepage
    How long until the first goatse.cx text troll (complete with odiferous enhancement)?
      • Heh. :-)

        This is really nothing new. Mattel tried to provide an enhancement to their game consoles back in the 80s. They called it:

        Insmellivision.

  • Mobile phones have been stinking for decades.
  • Call it "ink" or "toner" or whatever... there's going to be a refill-needing part that each phone with this tech is going to need. Instant goldmine.
    • The early models will only have one cartridge, so when you run out of "fart", you'll have to throw out "vanilla", "cinnamon", and "burning tires" as well. Second gen will introduce individual cartridges as well as "high resolution" smells, so instead of just plain "fart", you'll get "beer fart", "burrito fart", "dog fart", "SBD", etc.
      • Normally, that would just be funny... but considering this comes from germany... it's scary.

        Scented german mobile phone sheisse videos?
        • Scented german mobile phone sheisse videos?

          "Mom, if you were ever in a scented German mobile phone sheisse video, you'd tell me, right?"
          "Goodnight Eric."

  • My cheap Nokia already comes with a bunch of bitmap images that can be sent as SMS, flowers, hearts, smiley faces, etc. I've never actually used them, and no one has even, in many years of heavy mobile phone use, sent one to me. Obviously there's demand for sending text you've written, photos you've written, and ringtones other people want, but I just can't imagine a market for mobile smellovision.
  • Hell, it's hard enough to find a phone nowadays which isn't trying to do 10 things badly.

    My 7 year old Motorolla T720 is a really good phone in that I always have coverage in fairly rural areas, and in places where other people don't get coverage.

    When I replace it, I want something which is going to continue to have good service. A camera, I don't want since my provider is going to use it as a means to gouge me as I try to download the images -- well, that and the fact that I already own four cameras. An
    • Honestly you need to actuallt research phones when you buy them. Too many people go int oa store and point while screaming "I WANT THAT SHINEY!!!"

      Every phone I have owned I can easily upload mp3's as ringtones, downloaded the images from the camera, and uploaded my own stuff to it, etc.. I laugh hard at the fools that buy phones that are locked up tight so that you have to buy everything.

      Research the phones, buy what you want. My blackjack has a good enough camera that makes it a great tool for my job.

      • Honestly you need to actuallt research phones when you buy them.

        Yeah, I know. I'm getting close to the point where I'll need to replace my current phone. In my experience, trying to research cell phones is one of the most tedious and annoying things going -- it's almost as annoying as trying to compare plans between cell-phone providers, it's like comparing apples to lychee nuts. :-P

        Every phone I have owned I can easily upload mp3's as ringtones, downloaded the images from the camera, and uploaded my own

        • I just went through a bunch of research, I spread-sheeted the whole thing by accumulating ratings and a feature list. I came to the conclusion that all cellphones still suck in one way or another. So I picked the 2 most important features to me and went with it. They were: voice quality and battery life.

          It turned out my 3 year old Nokia was just perfect.

        • Researching your phone is very easy

          go to howardforums.com and scour their forums for info regarding either the brand of phone or by service provider.

          Not only that, but they show you how to unlock most phones that come locked by default from the cellphone service providers.

          Why pay for downloading cameraphone images (as crappy as they are anyway), when you can do it for free?

          I use a nokia E61i and a motorola K1m krzr, neither are exactly obtuse phones to find.

          • go to howardforums.com and scour their forums for info regarding either the brand of phone or by service provider.

            Thank you, that looks like a great starting point.

            I use a nokia E61i and a motorola K1m krzr, neither are exactly obtuse phones to find.

            Yeah, I've been happy with my T720, so if I can find a Motorolla phone which will allow me to transfer over my GSM card, that might be the route I go.

            Cheers
            • There is truly a wealth of information as well as wealth of information on what plan to get, and things like that...good search functionality and a website that is mobile-phone friendly (of course).

              Example: I pay a total of 36$/month including tax, and have unlimited phonecalls and internet use with a ton of text messages that I don't use, via a blackberry plan on the E61i (which I don't use anything blackberry), which I am cancelling the service on the other phone for....a plan I found via their forums spe
    • Answer the orginal commenter--

      Duh, Japan! This thing will be Mega-Godzilla-Happy-Fun-HUGE over there.
  • This technology dies after the first lawsuit from someone going into anaphylactic shock due to hypersensitivity to one of the chemicals used to generate the scent from the phone of the guy in the other row at the movie theatre.
        • Bad practical joke. Text "cannibis" or "C4" to your friends just as they enter an airport terminal. Hilarity ensues. Then suing ensues.
  • Yeah, this will really go over well. You take your phone to the bach and call somebody and they smell a generic, articifial "almost like a real yet generic" beach smell.

    Uh huh.

    One dimwitted company came up with this a few years ago (ten?) with the PC, now we all have internet smells enabled on our PCs. Yep.

    But what do I know? I predicted that quadraphonics [wikipedia.org] was a stupid idea, since a $500 quadraphonic sound system didn't sound as good as a $250 stereo system (you need twice as many of everything), yet "5.1 s
      • Damned cheap keyboards thay make these days! Now if I was on a phone, instead of "bach" you would have heard a far easier to understand message. Like "Yeah [sshhsht] well You [KKKKKKKkkkkkkrumble] phoney [chchchshshshhshh] to the bitch and call [crackle] and they smell [pssht] articifial [pshtpshtpsht] bleach smell."

        Ot conversely,

        "@ bch cul8tr"
      • In The North Island of NZ, a bach is a summer cottage, like on a lake or seaside.
  • Finally, something truly innovative! Finally, a patent I can heartily endorse!

    Here's hoping it winds up locked in patent battles for the next 20 or so years.
  • Now you can have "Silent but deadly" ring tones!
  • My first thought was how wrong this could go with someone coming out with the 'Adult Only' version of scents.

    Friend 1: Wat r u doing?

    Friend 2: hehe guess *smell*

    Friend 3: OMG!!1! BLUSH
  • d00d, sc3nt txt me quik

    wut up?

    dropd m fon n da toilet, need u 2 txt me lysol

    no lysol. febr33z. m gf sez i need

    d00d i dont care, just dload lysol, quik

    okok, hold on ...

    sh1t, copypaste wut m fon sez "Dear TmobileVerizon Subscriber: The German RIAA has placed an embargo on all German media content on this cell number, including ScentFon modules, due to unauthorized content access via FonTorrent."

    fukmi!!!

    d00d, its da st00pid techno song u told me to dload last time!!!

    fukmi!!!
  • will my phone smell like Gonorrhea?
  • it can actually capture and transmit any scent.

    imagine being able to call your _______ (politician, boss, ex; fill in the blank) and finally be able to truly express how you feel about them, where mere words just won't do.

  • "Please sniff your cell phone, then choose the correct answer from the following list: (a) cinnamon; (b) roses; (c) french fries; (d) fart; (e) toe jam. If you have a cold or other scent-challenging medical condition, click here to hear an audio version of your sound."

  • "omg hu ct 1?"
    "he hu smlt it dlt it"

  • I've read TFA, but I'm confused about what actually got patented. It would make more sense if the patent was related to the chip they're developing as opposed to the use of the chip in a mobile phone. In the former case, the possible applications are extremely broad. Think online games and virtual reality. Imagine playing WoW and having scents recreated for you by a chip in your computer as you wander the landscape.

    However, from TFA, it sounds like the patent is more narrow than this. That is, it's spec
    • Well technically with the amount of digital compression on modern media, those photos, videos and sound clips that people already send are merely representations of the original.
      • The original article says:

        ... there will be about 100 different prefabricated scents on the chip for customers to choose from.
        My interpretation of this was that you choose a scent from this list of 100 scents, the 'id' for that scent is sent to the receiver, and then the scent is generated at the receiver based on the id.

        So this is very different from photos, videos, and sound clips being sent.
  • Hopefully they'll charge exorbitant licencing fees for this patent, protecting us from the stench of Smelly Message Service for another 17 years.

    p
  • This could definitely lead to some interesting implications for people cybering.
  • That is the most useless crap I have ever heard of, I can't believe they spent research money on that, its gotta have a back door kill recipient scent or something. Well I am probably biased as I have turned off messaging on my service because I don't want them popping up and annoying me. I find that if its important they will take time to make a voice call.
  • We have flickr [flickr.com] for sharing photos, youtube [youtube.com] for sharing video, imeem [imeem.com] for sharing music I should get in early and register youaroma.com
  • ... wouldn't it be more likely to find such chip technology in room oder fighting plugins (to the wall socket)?
  • a 16 year old girl...

    They already send photos of their vaginas, why not smell too?

    • Just spend a summer in the Hunsruck [wikipedia.org], where the honey wagons spread the previous winter's manure collection on the fields.

      I don't know about this specific instance, but in my experience, I'd rather be exposed to fresh manure than many colognes or industrial smells (or dumpsters near restaurants).

      Then again, from just driving by, I don't overly object to the smell of skunk, so maybe I have a strange sense of smell. :-P [ And, no, I've never been near 'ground zero', I'm sure it's a lot worse ]

      • Skunk is no fun if you really get nailed, but a lot of hunters use skunk-scent to fool prey animals' sense of smell...It's definitely possible to get used to it.

        I'm with you regarding perfume/cologne...More than a little and my eyes itch and water. Walking past a "Bath and Bodyworks" is a test of olfactory endurance.
    • Ever been to Decatur, Illinois [wikipedia.org], home of ADM [wikipedia.org], whose corporate motto is "breadbasket to the world"?

      Decatur smells like someone killed a pig, let the carcass rot, threw it on a pile of pigshit, covered it with sugar and set it on fire.

      It's not as bad as Sauget [wikipedia.org] (1/2 mile south of East St Louis, Il) used to be when I was a kid. When it was 100 degrees F and no car air conditioning you would roll your windows up driving up or down highway 3 because of Monsanto, Cerro Copper, and the other toxic industries there.

      A
    • This is our May Fool joke.

      Yes, in case you folks missed it, April Fool's Day was postponed [uncyclopedia.org].

      1 April 2008

      WASHINGTON, DC -- Congress has passed a bill officially postponing April Fool's Day, originally on April 1, to May 1. Additionally, pranks on the traditional date will be a federal and capital offense punishable by death.

      Naturally, pranksters and liars all over the United States are flabbergasted, shocked, and whining.

      President George W. Bush said, "This is a national blasphemy to a major Western celebrati

    • I've always assumed this was a William Castle thing, because it's really his style, but the invention you're refering to is apparently called Smell-O-Vision [wikipedia.org] and was never used in a Castle film.

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