Can smells boost video gamer performance?

The Manila Times

Can smells boost video gamer performance?  "It smells like a car crash, burning tires," says Danel Zholzhanova, a PhD student at the University of Warwick, describing her experience with a prototype gaming headset equipped with a scent tube. This is not a real-life disaster, but a novel experiment at the intersection of gaming and sensory science. On display as part of the University of Warwick's 60th anniversary celebrations, the multisensory driving simulation research is being led by Professor Alan Chalmers of the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) who is investigating the use of olfactory stimuli in a virtual racing game scenario. The headset, designed to release specific odors such as 'machine oil' and 'burning rubber' at critical moments in the game, represents a push toward a more immersive and realistic gaming experience.  REUTERS VIDEO  AFP VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net   Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion   Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #worldnews  #videogamer

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00:00Now you can see where, yeah, follow the car. At some point the brakes will bind and then

00:06you'll have a problem.

00:08So basically she's doing a driving simulation, a racing game, and obviously going at high

00:12speed and at some point in the game, she doesn't know when, the brakes will start to bind.

00:16Now, in reality you have the smell of the burning of the brakes and you know to take

00:19your foot off the pedal. If you don't have the simulation in the gaming scenario, you

00:23won't and so of course you'll crash because your brakes will bind. So it's really giving

00:27a real world simulation which then tells you what's happening.

00:30Mind the wall.

00:35Gaming, of course, people want a more immersive gaming experience and of course smell is a

00:39very important part of the real world. So in the driving simulation that we're doing

00:42here, if you have the smell of the burning brakes, of course it's going to indicate there's

00:46a problem and you should maybe take your foot off the brake. So if you didn't have that

00:49smell of burning in the game, you wouldn't respond correctly.

00:51So basically we're mounting the smell device right above your nose. So when you puff the

00:55tiny bit of smell, parts per million, just in front of your nose and when you inhale

00:58you can actually get the smell, when you exhale you blow it out again. But it's only

01:01enough that you have the experience without puffing the whole thing into the environment.

01:04So it's really directed smell to your nose.

01:06Smell-O-Vision and scratch and sniff have been around for a long time but the big problem

01:09with any smell is if you puff smell into an environment, how do you get rid of it? That's

01:12the biggest challenge because then you're closing up, stinking up, the whole room stinks

01:15of it. So really the research element is trying to deliver just the right amount of smell

01:18that you have the immersive experience without completely smothering the whole environment

01:22in it. So how much do you need in order to be able to have the experience without suffocating

01:25the whole environment?

01:27It smells like a car crash, like burning tyres. It makes the experience quite different. It's

01:36a bit scary even. And difficult to concentrate because of the smell. Alarming.

01:46What we're doing, we're simulating all the senses. The real world is full of all senses.

01:50Visuals, audio, smell, feel and taste. So if you want to try and simulate the real world

01:54you need to include all of them. So what we're doing is simulating flavour, which is a combination

01:58of taste and smell. And we use it for, for example, a cooking game but more importantly

02:01we use it for healthcare applications to screen for Alzheimer's. The problem is you can get

02:05Alzheimer's in your 40s or 50s but you won't know about it until you're 60s or 70s when

02:08you fail a memory test. So how do we determine the people who've got it? Because before,

02:12November 2022, there was nothing you could do about it. But now there are new drugs,

02:15there's an advocate about which are available, which slow Alzheimer's down. But crucially

02:19only if it's caught early. So how do you determine who's got Alzheimer's in their 40s

02:22or 50s? They're not going to fail the memory test. So what you need to do is you need to

02:26MRI scan everyone every six months to check whether they've got it or not. That's not

02:29going to happen. So can we determine of all the millions of people who should be checked

02:32the ones that should be checked? And we can do that because if you have some form of Alzheimer's

02:36at the beginning you will affect your ability to taste and smell and so we can screen for

02:39that. We can check how good you are compared to your age or sex or ethnicity or compared

02:43to yourself six months ago. If you're not where you should be then you could have a

02:46problem and you should be looked at further.

02:49For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

02:54For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

02:59For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

03:04For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

03:09For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

03:19For more information visit www.ISGlobal.org

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