The internet can now carry a smell: coffee, cake and orange, sent down a wire

For all the things the internet can send — words, pictures, voices, video — smell has always stayed behind. A new system called Scentronic takes a first step across that line. Six small sensors sniff a scent, and artificial intelligence works out which of five smells it is: beer, cake, coffee, orange or red wine. That information travels over the internet to a wearable device — a wristband, a necklace or a handheld gadget — which releases a matching scent from tiny amounts of scented liquid. In tests with 14 people, the system identified the five smells correctly about 73% of the time. It cannot copy a smell exactly yet; it recreates one from scents prepared in advance. Even so, the researchers, reporting in the journal Science Advances, can see a future where doctors test a patient's sense of smell from far away, and a video call carries a hint of the coffee on the other side.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation