When you hear immersion in relation to video games, what comes to your mind? Display and sound, right? A company known as Game Scent wants to add a third layer of immersion with a device that uses AI to analyze the sound from what you are playing and release a variety of smells including gunfire, explosions, and forest. The smell adds to the display and sound to further transport you into the game environment.
The hexagonal-shaped device that looks like a cookie box is compatible with all gaming consoles. According to the company, their “devices release real-time scents that enhance every scene”. The device uses what the company describes as instant audio-to-scent translation to capture sounds from the game, analyze them in real-time, and determine the best scent to emit for each scene.
Game Scent said events like explosions, gunfire, racing, ocean, forests, and so on can trigger scents. The company is also working on bringing additional scents to the device including big city, blood, human exertion, fresh-cut grass, napalm, and ocean.
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This is unarguably a rare accessory that can potentially transform our gaming culture forever. Game Scent is sold for $180. However, at the time of writing, there is a 17% discount on the product that brings the price down to $150.
If the thought of smelling like your gaming environment is something that excites you, then you need to grab a box of Game Scent as soon as possible because the discount will not last forever. The beauty of Game Scent is that after a gaming session, you can trigger “Clean Air” manually to neutralize all the scents that were emitted during your gameplay.
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Game Scent is currently running a promo for their starter kit. The promo is not available to every region. However, you can visit this link to check if it is available in your region and enter. It was two days to the end of the promo at the time of writing. The promo has received over 8,900 entries.
Game Scent has two key components
The main components of Game Scent are an atomizer and an adaptor. The atomizer has six slots that hold six different scents. Once the AI analyzes the perceived audio, the atomizer releases the desired scent. Atomizers usually function by forcing liquid through a hole under high pressure, thereby producing a fine spray of a liquid.
“Enhance your gaming and movie experiences with our GameScent and MovieScent scent cartridges,” the company said on its website. “Specifically designed for the GameScent device, these game scents immerse you in the heart of your entertainment. Each cartridge is expertly crafted to sync with your favorite scenes, providing a rich, multisensory journey.”
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The question that will likely be going through your mind now is what would happen when the scent in the atomizer is spent. Well, Game Scent has created refill cans for the different scents which can be purchased separately.
According to the company, the refills are easy to install. In other words, you don’t need to have any technical knowledge to be able to swap out the spent cans and replace them with new cans. Game Scent said that its scent could produce a level of immersion that “can transform the way audiences engage with media, making them feel as if they are part of the story”.
One important question that needs to be answered is how safe the scents are, and whether there is a long-term negative effect associated with using them constantly. Nevertheless, this is an interesting level of immersion that is good for accessibility.
