Why can’t we record scent

1.06K viewsOtherTechnology

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

47 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The source of a smell will eventually run out.

When we smell something, airborne particles enter our nose, which are then interpreted by the brain. So, what happens to an object that is continuously shedding particles in order for you to smell it? Eventually the source needs to be replenished. You won’t smell like perfume the rest of your life by applying it once. And you can’t perfectly replicate the smell of a perfume without the same mixture of particles.

Sight on the other hand, simply requires a light source (sun, light bulb, fire, etc) to reflect photons off an object into your eyes to be interpreted by the brain. And sound is the vibration of particles entering your ears to be interpreted by the brain, the patterns of which we can replicate by precisely moving the air.

Smell, like taste, cannot be easily replicated because they require very specific particles shedded by the object itself. Light and sound do not originate in such a way to ‘run out’ from the object itself.

You are viewing 1 out of 47 answers, click here to view all answers.