While we might not be travelling by jet packs or communicating via holograms, one futuristic fantasy invention may soon be coming our way: personal Smell-O-Visions.
Promising to change the way we watch cooking shows, scientists are working on a gadget that will release smells to correspond with what we see on television and computer screens, according to Britain's The Daily Mail.
The gadget, developed by scientists in Japan, is actually an adapted ink jet printer, which emits scents like mint, grapefruit, cinnamon, lavender and vanilla, instead of ink, the newspaper says. That means, one day soon, we might be able to smell the baked goods that television cooking hosts pull out of the oven.
Although Smell-O-Vision dates back to the late 1950s and 1960s, the technology, which was used in movie theatres, never took off. The Daily Mail says film goers complained of its distracting noise and scents that lingered too long.
While the latest gadget is able to produce fleeting aromas, which last about two breaths, its developers are reportedly still working out how to link the smells to pictures.
Now, if only they start working on developing Taste-O-Vision.
Wency Leung