research-article

Opportunities for odor: experiences with smell and implications for technology

Authors:

Marianna Obrist,

Alexandre N. Tuch,

Kasper HornbaekAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2843 - 2852

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557008

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Technologies for capturing and generating smell are emerging, and our ability to engineer such technologies and use them in HCI is rapidly developing. Our understanding of how these technologies match the experiences with smell that people have or want to have is surprisingly limited. We therefore investigated the experience of smell and the emotions that accompany it. We collected stories from 439 participants who described personally memorable smell experiences in an online questionnaire. Based on the stories we developed 10 categories of smell experience. We explored the implications of the categories for smell-enhanced technology design by (a) probing participants to envision technologies that match their smell story and (b) having HCI researchers brainstorm technologies using the categories as design stimuli. We discuss how our findings can benefit research on personal memories, momentary and first time experiences, and wellbeing.

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Cited By

Spangenberger PSanchez-Holguin KFreytag S(2025)Scent Box: Prototyping and Instructions for Olfactory Enhancement of VR-ExperiencesImmersive Learning Research Network10.1007/978-3-031-80475-5_2(18-33)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80475-5_2
Gao PLiu FWen DGao YZhang LWang CZhang QZhang YMa SLu QMi HXu Y(2024)Mul-O: Encouraging Olfactory Innovation in Various Scenarios Through a Task-Oriented Development PlatformProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676387(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676387
Shakeri HYuan YAxtell BGeiskkovitch DNeustaedter C(2024)Designing Smart Home Technology For Passive Co-Presence Over DistanceProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661508(3389-3406)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661508
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Opportunities for odor: experiences with smell and implications for technology
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2014

4206 pages

ISBN:9781450324731

DOI:10.1145/2556288

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University, Wales, UK
,
Philippe Palanque
Université Paul Sabatier, France
,
Program Chairs:
Albrecht Schmidt
University of Stuttgart, Germany
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 26 April 2014

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April 26 - May 1, 2014

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CHI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 465 of 2,043 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Spangenberger PSanchez-Holguin KFreytag S(2025)Scent Box: Prototyping and Instructions for Olfactory Enhancement of VR-ExperiencesImmersive Learning Research Network10.1007/978-3-031-80475-5_2(18-33)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80475-5_2
Gao PLiu FWen DGao YZhang LWang CZhang QZhang YMa SLu QMi HXu Y(2024)Mul-O: Encouraging Olfactory Innovation in Various Scenarios Through a Task-Oriented Development PlatformProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676387(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676387
Shakeri HYuan YAxtell BGeiskkovitch DNeustaedter C(2024)Designing Smart Home Technology For Passive Co-Presence Over DistanceProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661508(3389-3406)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661508
Cho HKim GLee C(2024)Olfactory Puppetry: Merging Olfaction and Puppetry to Explore the Future of Olfactory Social RobotsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660733(2435-2449)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660733
Beşevli CBrianza GDawes CShabanova NMathur SLechner MMaggioni EBoak DPhilpott CFatah Gen. Schieck AObrist M(2024)Smell Above All: Envisioning Smell-Centred Future WorldsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660699(2530-2544)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660699
Fu SChen JCai YFan M(2024)AromaBlendz: An Olfactory System for Crafting Personalized ScentsExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3648670(1-5)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3648670
Lin YYu SZhuang ALee CTing YLee SLin BKuo P(2024)Representing scentsInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103357192:COnline publication date: 1-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103357
Dong LLai PZhao T(2024)MORE THAN ONE MILAN: Urban Interactive Experience: An Olfactory Map ProjectHuman-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-60441-6_2(15-29)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60441-6_2
Vi CCornelio PObrist MYeomans M(2023)“Sweet: I did it”! Measuring the sense of agency in gustatory interfacesFrontiers in Computer Science10.3389/fcomp.2023.11282295Online publication date: 12-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2023.1128229
Nakashima HBrscic DKanda T(2023)Expanding the Senses: Considering the Use of Active Smell Delivery for Human-Robot InteractionsProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction10.1145/3623809.3623971(479-481)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623809.3623971
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