Catch a glimpse of some modern platform video games, and you might mistake them for live action. Graphics are getting so good that it’s hard to see how the next generation of game designers will improve upon them. Bob Stone of Birmingham University in England isn’t even going to try to improve how these games look. Instead, he’s hoping to add realism to next-gen gaming in a more fragrant way. Stone is working on a way to inject scents into gaming—the loamy smell of a horse track, for instance, or the sharp odor of a battlefield. Initially, he envisions these olfactory elements will be used in virtual military exercises (the project, after all, is being funded by Britain’s Ministry of Defense), but he thinks the technology could waft its way to the private sector in no time. Great? Maybe. Let’s just hope no one tries to inject scent into those zombie-fighting games. (The Sunday Times, London)
