Koreans sniff out Web-scent technology

By Shaun Nichols on Mar 1, 2007 8:15 AM
Filed under Oddware

Internet will transfer smells between computers by 2015.

The internet of the future will allow the digital transfer of smells over a broadband connection, according to a survey of 3,500 South Korean technology experts.

The study was carried out by the country's Ministry of Information and Communication, said the Korea Times.

Scents could be transformed into digital information and then sent over a broadband connection, where a special device at the user's end will decode the data and translate it back into a smell.

Ministry director general Ryoo Pill-gye suggested that the technology could be used to promote goods such as perfumes.

Companies in South Korea claim to have been working on the technology for digitising and transferring smells over the internet since 2000.

Other technologies predicted by the survey include tiny medical devices that operate from within a patient's bloodstream, mobile phones with a two-month battery life and special glasses that capture 3D video footage.