13/03/2024
Basically, GameScent is an essential oil diffuser that's powered by AI that tells it when to use each one. The box figures out what you're doing in the game and releases the appropriate odor. We got a chance to check it out, and it isn't necessarily as ridiculous as it sounds.
GameScent figures out what's happening in your game in a roundabout, but content-universal, manner. A transmitter you connect via HDMI between your console, PC, soundbar, or TV takes the audio signal and streams it to GameScent's servers (the box must be online to work). Those servers use a PyTorch-based machine learning system with a huge library of sound effects and ambient noise as a base. GameScent then analyzes the stream to see if anything in it matches anything in the library that could trigger a scent.
It worked fairly well in a live gameplay demo using Far Cry 6. After a few seconds, GameScent picked up the ambient forest sounds and released a pleasant woodsy scent. It also emitted a gunfire scent based on the on-screen action, but I didn't get a good whiff of that one.
Another odor we caught on the wind was blood 🩸, which may be a step too far. We get it. Blood adds to the immersion while you're playing a horror game...but when was the last time you smelled blood? It's not pleasant. Still, GameScent is shaping up to be a fun and unique way to add another dimension to the gaming experience.
🔗: https://www.pcmag.com/news/whats-that-smell-nose-on-with-gamescent-the-connected-aroma-diffuser
