There are all manner of ways for your phone to let you know someone is trying to get ahold of you, from blinking lights, ringing bell sounds, buzzes and even text notifications. What with three out of five senses covered, why not try to eek in a fourth?
According to Technorati Top Tech listing Engadget, Japanese company Scentee wants to do just that for us, creating a smart phone plugin that will send out a tiny blast of a chosen scent when someone sends you a text or phone call.
It's an odd yet interesting concept, when you think about how many emotions are tied to particular scents. This could get fairly stinky for really popular people, however, unless there are controls built-in to the app accompanying the device.
You simply plug in Scentee into the headphone port of your phone, add a small canister of pleasant plant scents such as rose, mint, or jasmine, or one from the menagerie of food-based scents like bacon, cinnamon rolls, coffee, apple, coconut, strawberry and even corn soup. Yep, corn soup. Go figure.
Scentee is geared toward the Japanese market at this time, which would likely explain the cultural slant of its advertisement on YouTube. It's about a Japanese woman who has fond memories of her childhood, when she used to help her mother in what is presumably the family orange orchard. She still receives a shipment from time to time from dear old mom, and it is the fresh citrus scent from the care packages that keeps her spirits up during her now-busy city life.
The advertisement is unusually long, and runs like a Japanese soap opera. The woman is faced with either quitting her job and leaving behind her life's dreams, or losing an engagement to a man she is in love with. The commercial ends in a way that many Westerners might not be too happy about, but shows a tough choice all too common for many working women facing cultural norms in Japanese society.
Should you choose to watch the very weighty ad, make sure you turn on the closed captioning for English speakers.
So what are your thoughts? Would you buy such an unusual product, to alert you when phone calls come in from loved ones? Or is it a bit much?
How about the advertising campaign? Was it also a bit much....?
You can read Engadget's full article here.
via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/rnu2BdPU6LM/