This Robot Smells when Your Name is Mentioned Online {The 5th Sense in the News}

The BBC reports about a robotic invention utilizing olfaction as a signal that your name was mentioned somewhere on the Internet. The mini robot is called Oily, short for "olfactory"...

It emits a waft of a scent of your choice each time your name appears on social media. Several different scents can be used to differentiate between the formats of the quotes, from a re-tweet to a comment. Ben Redford the inventor said,

"We are gradually spending more and more time on screen and it's good to have some other form of sensory stimulus rather than just video and audio," and, "We wanted to reward people in the physical world for their digital and social interactions,"

It sounds though like you still need to read your quote online to understand what exactly is being said about yourself/your brand since you can't get anything more from a smell than the idea of an event in this case. But the olfactory stimulus would replace the sound of a ring for instance. For oft-quoted persons, this might turn into a thick cloud of aromatic molecules which might quickly become ovewhelming. We see some potential comic material here.

Like for the invention of the Internet, there are no copyrights, but a Creative Commons License in this case which lets you build the robot in your garage if you wish to do so.

Read more at Perfume-Puffing Robot Sniffs Out Social Media Mentions