We have invented devices to record what we can see, and devices to record what we can hear.
Why haven’t we invented something to record what we can smell?
How would this work if we did?
\[When I am travelling I really wish I could record the way things smell, because smell is so strongly evocative of memories and sensations.\]
In: Technology
Audio can be recorded by the changes of atmospheric pressure caused by acoustic sound moving around the microphone diaphragm. As for Video, we all know devices use light intensity to map a picture, and a series of those pictures makes video. But speaking about smell, it’s a bit complicated. You need to recreate the chemistry of certain gases to feel the smell. So the medium and space you live in needs to be occupied by some gases and some machine has to do it. But, the smell-creating thing is so vast in terms of space and uses so many living and non-living things, atmosphere, etc, etc, which are surrounding you to create that sense of smell. To simulate that is very very hard. One jasmine smell, one rose smell, these things we can recreate but not an abstract smell that occurred somewhere in the world. It’s just so hard as the smell itself is a result of many many things that are happening around you.
Food for thought – Have you asked the same question about the sense of touch? How it feels to touch something. Applies the same for smell.
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