Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Smell But Were Afraid
To Ask
IAP 2001 Activity
Webpage v2.0 26/11/00
Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye, website-AT-jofish-DOT-com
"Of all the human senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste, and the feeling
that a huge man with a barbecue fork is lurking in the closet - perhaps the
least appreciated, yet most important, is our sense of smell."
Barry, Dave. A Nose by Any Other Name Still Smells. Knight-Ridder
Newspapers, 3 May 1998.
NB ROOM CHANGE: Now 66-110
I am a grad student at the Media Lab, and my current research involves conveying
information using smell. As such, I've spent the last several months learning
more about smell than I ever wanted to know.
This course is a whirlwind tour of some of the most interesting facts about
smell, which will give a general grounding in the subject and challenge some
assumptions.
We will start at 10:30 each day, and go for about two hours, with room to run
over if necessary. We will meet in room E15-335, on the third floor of the Media
Lab. No previous knowledge of smell expected, but attendance at the first class
will greatly help you understand any of the other classes. Please
email me to signup, and if you have any particular areas of smell you'd
like me to cover, let me know. The signup is just to let me know how many people
to expect for photocopy/room size reasons. No, you can't get credit for it.
There will be an emphasis on use of primary sources, and there will be some
way of obtaining copies of these sources. In the short list below, click on
the days listed to see the primary sources for that day. I suggest you do so
and let me know what in particular interests you. We obviously won't cover all
of the content of all of the papers listed on any given day, but this gives
you an idea where I'm getting my information from. My complete annotated bibliography
is available here. [NEW:updated Smell Reference
List]
Please note that Smell & Memory is now part of Day I rather than Day
II: it just wouldn't fit on Day II.
- Smell and Sleep
- Menstrual Synchronicity
- Noses & Interaction
- Smells & Sexual Arousal
- Pheromones & Sex: Do Those Sprays Work?
- Aromatherapy
- Religious uses
- Smell & Disease
- The Rise of Perfumery
- Smell in Literature
- Smell in Museums
- Sooper special treat: The Lost Art of Nauscopie
- Smell in Films
- Smell in Theatre & Performance
- Scratch 'n' Sniff
- Sensorama
- Smell and Computers
- Smell and Computers: Patents
- The Olfactory Display of Abstract Information : My research
Who cares?
I think the work covered will be of interest to a very diverse crowd, including
but not limited to:
- Comparative Media Studies - the role of smell in film, theatre, and computers,
and in antiquity
- Brain & Cognitive Science - looking for a little more in depth information
than 9.35 gives. Coverage of the VNO, trigeminal nerve, which is rarely mentioned.
- Computer Science - virtual reality; human-computer interface design; calm
computing; ambient media
- Chemistry - smell classification schemes, chemistry of olfaction.
- Anthropology, Ethnography, & Sociology - smell & human relations,
relationships, sex, pheromones
- History - Roman & Greek historical uses of smell, the belief that smell
conveyed disease, plague years..
- Everyone - how to use smell to make people think you're sexy. And to remember
things better.
Primary Sources to be covered:
January 16th: How We Smell and Smell & Memory
January 17th: Smell & Human Relations
- Smell and Sleep
- Mochizuki, K., Suzuki, Y., Kihara. T, Yano, F., Ninimija, S.P., The
Arresting Effect of Fragrance on Inclining Sleep. Annual International
Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vol.
12, No. 5, 1990, p. 2051 -- Smell of lemon will wake you up, but only
if you had enough sleep the night before. Jasmine and lavender were not
effective.
- Kahn, MJ (1983). Human awakening and subsequent identification of fire-related
cues. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 27th Annual Meeting, Santa
Monica, CA: Human Factors Society pp806-810. -- people wake to noise,
(100% of the time) not smell of smoke or heat. (75%) of the time.
- Menstrual Synchronicity
- McClintock, Martha. Menstrual Synchrony and Suppression. Nature Vol
229 Jan 22 1971. p244-245. -- Classic paper on menstrual cycle synchrony
in roommates.
- Weller, Aron and Leonard Weller. The impact of social interaction factions
on menstrual synchrony in the workplace. Psychoneuroendocrinology 20,
21, 1995. -- Social interactions have a direct relevance to degree
of Synchronicity.
- Russel, Michael J., Switz, Genevieve M., Thompson, Kate. Olfactory Influences
on the Human Menstrual Cycle. Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior, Vol
13 p737-738. (1980) -- Rubbing sweat from underarm of donor with very
regular menstrual cycle makes others change their cycles to synchronize.
Seems like a well-executed study.
- Noses & Interaction
- Gladstone, Brooke and Hirsch, Dr.Alan. Smell Disorders. OnHealth Webcast
19 Oct 1999. http://onhealth.webmd.com/home/live/ohlive/archive/item,51406.asp
-- When people lie they touch their noses and lean forward and don't
use contractions. And erectile tissue in the nose. And smell disorder
treatments. and some figures on penile blood flow changes with a whole
bunch of different smells. Ethnic groups.
- Smells & Sexual Arousal
- Hirsch, A.R. Human Male Response to Olfactory Stimuli. http://www.aanos.org/jrl_an_article.htm
-- Big responders: Lavender and pumpkin pie 40%, doughnut and black
licorice 31%, pumpkin pie & doughnut 20%, orange 19.5%. Lavender alone
8%, pumpkin pie alone 8.5%. Cinnamon buns 4%.
- Hirsch AR, Gruss J, Bermale, C, Zagorski D, Schroder MA. The effects
of odors on female sexual arousal. Psychosomatic Medicine 60. p95. --
Increase in vaginal blood flow. Notable odors: "good and plenty"
+ cucumber: +13%, baby powder +13%, lavender and pumpkin pie +11%, baby
powder and chocolate +4%, perfume +1%, men's cologne -1%, charcoal bbq
meat -14%, cherry -19%.
- Pheromones & Sex: Do Those Sprays Work?
- Irish Times. The Cheque is in the Post, No Sweat. 26 October 1991.
-- Bodywise, a UK company has a patent on spraying androstenone onto bills.
(This is unverifiable.)
- www.pheremonespray.com "Incredible Discovery: Amazing New Sex Scent
Attracts 3 out of 4 Women!"
- Cowley, JJ and Brooksbank, BWL. (1991) Human exposure to putative pheromones
and changes in aspects of social behavior. The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology 39 647-659. SCI J QP.J868 TCD Hamilton Library PER
574 1969-1990
- Kirk-Smith, Michael, Booth DA, Carroll D, Davies P. Human Social Attitudes
Affected by Androstenol. Research Communications in Psychology, Psychiatry
and Behavior. Vol. 3 No. 4 1978. -- This is the paper that says 'androstenol
made the photographed women appear sexually more attractive in the judgment
of both men and women, with a conceptually related and weaker effect on
judgments about the photographed men.' Boom, there it is.
- Cann & Ross 1999 -- Olfactory stimuli as context cues in human memory.
American Journal of Psychology, 102, 91-102 -- Different odors have
no effect on attractiveness ratings. Presence of same smell at recall
is good.
- Where's that dentist waiting room chair paper?
- Aromatherapy
January 18th: Cultural Background of Smell: Uses
over History
- Religious uses
- All References to Smell in the King James Bible. Assembled by Joseph
Kaye.
- Classen, C., Howes, D., Synnott, A.,Aroma. The cultural history of smell.
Routledge, London, 1994.-- A great cultural background to smell.
- Smell & Disease
- Le Guérer, A. Translated by Miller, R. Scent - The Mysterious and Essential
Powers of Smell. Turtle Bay Books, New York 1992. -- wide ranging and
diverse. perfume as a tool of satan, witches and smells, smell and recognition
of the other, ethnic identity and smell, philosophy's reactions to smell,
description of kodo. Important: to the middle ages, the smell of plague
WAS the plague.
- Smith, Kathleen and Sines, Jacob. Demonstration of a Peculiar Odor in
the Sweat of Schizophrenic Patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol
2 184-188. -- [Some] schizophrenics have an odor that can be distinguished
from non-schitzophrenics (But it seems that the group was selected such
on the basis of [schizophrenic] and [has the smell], and there was no
testing of those diagnosed with schizophrenia and without the smell. And
they had all been on the back ward of a state hospital for ten years.
Very dodgy selection criteria.
- Turetsky, Bruce I., Moberg, Paul J, Yousem, David M, Doty, Richard L.
et al. Reduced olfactory bulb volume in patients with schizophrenia. The
American Journal of Psychiatry, May 2000 v157 issue 5 828-830. -- Patients
with schizophrenia exhibit structural olfactory deficits as well as functional
olfactory deficits.
- Watson, Lyall. Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell.
WW Norton & Company, New York, 2000. -- re:schizophrenia
- The Rise of Perfumery
- Smell in Literature
- Proust, M. Translated by Moncrieff, S. and Kilmartin, T. Remembrance
of Things Past. New York: Vintage, pp.48-51
- Süskind, P. Perfume, The Story of a Murderer. Translated by J. E. Woods.
Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1986
- Smell in Museums
- Aggleton, J.P., Waskett, L. The ability of odours to serve as state-dependent
cues for real-world memories: Can Viking smells aid the recall of Viking
experiences? British Journal of Psychology (1999), 90, 1-7. -- Museum
odours could act as effective retrieval cues for this incidentally acquired
real-world episode. (?)
- Sooper special treat: The Lost Art of Nauscopie
- Dill, J. Gregory. The Lost Art of Nauscopie. Ocean Navigator 79, Jan/Feb
1997. -- Obscure french civil servant circa 1762 invents now-lost method
of consistently predicting when ships will arrive, four days before they
appear, by a method of sensing disruption of chemical contents of the water.
- Charton, Eduoard (ed.) Explication de Diverse Variétés de Mirage. in Le
Magazin Pittoresque, 1843. fasc. 1 Année 11. http://gallica.bnf.fr/scripts/ConsultationTout.exe?O=0031426&T=0
-- Nauscopie-related explanation of mirages. Primarily visual explanation
January 19th: Smell In Media
- Smell in Films
- Longino, B. A Century in The Arts. The Atlanta Journal And Constitution,
December 5, 1999. Lexis-Nexis. --1906 rose smell added to screening
of the Rose Bowl game.
- Time Magazine. A Sock in the Nose. Review of Behind the Great Wall. 21
December 1959, p57.
- Crowther, Bosley. How Does it Smell? 'Scent of Mystery' Intrudes Another
Question of Quality in Films. New York Times, 28 February 1960. Section
2, pg 9. -- He hates it.
- Lightman, Herb A. This Movie Has Scents! American Cinematographer, February
1960, p92-93, 110. -- They like it.
- Lefcowitz, Eric. Retro Future: Smell-O-Vision: The Scent of a Movie. Available
at http://retrofuture.web.aol.com/smell.html -- good history of it.
- Smell in Theatre & Performance
- Dougill, D. Moses Pendleton's baseball ballet does not reach first base
with David Dougill. Sunday Times, December 3, 1995. Lexis-Nexis.
- Nelken Information: Various internet sources
- Scratch 'n' Sniff
- rumpus.net. The Rumpus Room: Polyester. Available at: http://www.rumpus.net/junk/odorama.html
- English National Opera: Personal Email; Fax -- from Jane Livingston,
Head of Press. Email: 1988-90. director was Richard Jones. The production
was televised by BBC from Opera North and the BBC inserted Scratch and
Sniff cards into copies of the Radio Times magazine. Fax: Extract from
'The Narrow-Smeller' , an extract from 'Earwitness' by Elias Canetta,
trans. J. Neugroschel (Andre Deutsch, 1979); originally published as 'Der
Ohrenzeuge: Funfzig Charakters', Carl Hanser Verlag,Munich.
- Adams, Cecil. The Straight Dope: How do "scratch-'n'-sniff" cards work?
Available at: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_246.html
- Sensorama
- Heilig, Morton L. US Patent 3,050,870 Sensorama Stimulator. August 28,
1962. -- The big one. Virtual reality immersion, smells, the whole game.
- Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Reality. Summit Books, 1991. -- interview
with Morton Heilig; he actually uses the last remaining Sensorama machine.
- Smell and Computers
- Barfield, Woodrow and Danas, Eric. Comments on the Use of Olfactory
Displays for Virtual Environments. Presence, Winter 1995, Vol 5 No 1,
p. 109-121.
- Cater, J.P, Approximating the Senses: Smell/Taste: Odors in Virtual
Reality. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1994. Humans, Information and
Technology., 1994 IEEE International Conference on , Volume: 2 , 1994
-- Use of smell in firefighter training
- Platt, C., You've got Smell! Wired, Nov 7, 1999. Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/digiscent_pr.html
- www.digiscents.com
- www.trisenx.com
- Smell and Computers : Patents
- US 3,050,870 Heilig M.L. Sensorama Stimulator. August 28, 1962. -- The
first one. Virtual reality immersion, smells, the whole game.
- US 6004516: Firooz Rasouli, Hamid Arastoopour, Ali Oskouie. Assignee:
Illinois Institute of Technology -- Apparatus for generating odor upon
electronic signal demand Dec. 21 1999
- WO 00/15269 Aromix Technologies Ltd. Methods and Apparatus for Odor
Reproduction. Available at http://www.patents.ibm.com. -- The one that
Digiscents bought out.
- US 4,556,539 Spector, Donald. Disc-Playing Aroma Generator. December
3 1985. Discontinued 24 Aug 1999! .-- basically one LP-player
looking thing.
- US 4,629, 604 Spector, D. Multi-aroma Cartridge Player. 16 December
1986 . Discontinued 24 Aug 1999 -- Pads with liquid fragrance,
each with an e heater. "May be synchronized to follow the scenes of a
video tape or movie film presentation."
- US 6,024,783 Mark Budman. Assignee: IBM. Aroma Sensory Stimulation in
Multimedia. 15 February 2000 -- Patent to.. well, do everything you'd
expect. Hmm.
- US 5,887,118 Huffman, James Robert of Austin, TX, Cruichshank, Ronald
Dale of Durham, NC, Jambhekar, Shrirang Nikanth, of Schaumburg, IL, Myers,
Jeffery Van, of Driftwood, TX, Collins, Russell Lawrence, of Austin, TX..
Assignee: Motorola. Olfactory Card. 23 March 1999. -- A PCMCIA card
which produces smells.
- US 5,727,186 Shervington, EA, Burningham, RC. Assigned The BOC Group
PLC, Surrey, England. Simulation apparatus and gas dispensing device used
in conjunction therewith. March 10, 1998. -- Displaying 3d graphics
and producing a smell at the same time.
- US 5,565,148 Pendergrass, Daniel B. Jr. Assignee: 3M. Device for selectively
providing a multiplicity of aromas. 15 October 1996. -- "Especially useful
for providing a realistic sensory experience in an interactive or non-interactive
use, and may be used in...the entertainment industry, the educational
training field or a medical arena." Covers VR helmet, smell thing round
neck, Sensorama!
- US 5,398,070 Lee, Dong H. Assignee: Goldstar Co. Ltd, Seoul, Korea.
Smell Emission Control Apparatus For Television Receiver. 14 Mar 1995.--
Smell TV. As you'd expect.
- The Olfactory Display of Abstract Information : My research
- Bendini SA. Holy Smoke: The Oriental Fireclocks. New Scientist 21 537-539.
1964.
- Kaye, Joseph. The Olfactory Display of Abstract Information.. CHI Short
Paper (to be submitted), 2000.
Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye, website-AT-jofish-DOT-com