Huffing Via E-Mail

Another day, another story about huffing.

NTT Communications, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has developed a way to transmit scents into somebody's house via cellphone and/or e-mail. As long as your chum (get it? chum smells!) has one of the aromatherapy devices hogging counter space, you can text "roses" or "poo" and fill their living room with the scent of roses. Or poo.

Not really. There's no poo smell. Though that would be funny in a passive-aggressive techno terrorism kind of way.

The in-home base unit, expected to cost in the range of $195, mixes scents like printers mix ink and then releases them into the air. In one of the oddest quotes I've ever heard whilst promoting a device, Akira Sakaino, from NTT Communications' Net Business Division says, "Aromatherapy can reduce stress and help you relax, and to be able to control smell implies one has the power to manipulate feelings as well." (Emphasis mine.)

Wow, okay, weird. But promising. Hand these thingies out like fruitcakes during Christmas and then force everybody to love you forever and ever!

When Roses Won’t Do, E-Mail a Fragrance [NYT]