The Sony smell printer would use an embedded electronic nose to match production batches of ink with desired scents.
reader’s senses, one group of Royal Institute students came up with a plan to create a gardening and cooking magazine (Seasons) that would give readers ways to smell, touch, taste, listen to, and interact with its content.
Starting with smell, the students
wanted to go beyond the old perfume scratch-and-sniff approach. They discovered that the Sony Student Design Workshop at Donghua University in China has developed a concept for a smell printer that would use an embedded electronic nose to match production batches of ink with desired scents.
So, stories about peach cobbler could
smell sweet and, well, peachy while stories about lasagne would smell like a rich tomato sauce. All thanks to the ink.
Taste was next. After talking with a printing
technology expert, the students learned that everything containing cellulose fibres can be turned into paper. Say hello to tea leaf paper and seed-based herbs converted to paper that could be cut out and cooked. How about hosting a tea party to taste the latest new teas using only hot water, cups, and pages from Seasons magazine? Or testing new herbs by dissolving different herb
‘coupons’ from Seasons into a stew or soup? Sound? The growth of conductive ink
means the Seasons team can embed sound in the pages of their magazine. Interviews with readers’ favourite chefs could come alive, or those same chefs could talk readers through cooking one of their signature recipes.
Touch was a bit more of a challenge, but
the students realised they could embed seeds in the paper for readers to cut out and actually plant! And they could use unique, colourful ingredients to make the paper for the magazine pages. Using olives, almonds, hazelnuts, beer ingredients, coffee, corn, and citrus, the Seasons team could produce paper in different textures and colours. And the story behind each unusual type of paper would appeal to chefs, gardeners and environmentalists alike.
The Seasons team also researched heat-
sensitive ink that disappears when heat is applied, as from a reader’s hand. They thought it would be great entertainment