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World Wide Whiff ... check out the newest technology on the net
By JONATHAN WEINBERG and DAVE MASTERS
IT'S the latest piece of technology to be developed for your PC and Sun online readers are about to get an exclusive pre-phew.
Boffins in deepest Essex have invented a new bit of software that turns the Internet into the Stinkernet.
Using your computer speakers, you can now experience smells as well as sounds while you're surfing in cyberspace - go here to "scratch" some squares away and smell them http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001310000-2007140881,00.html (there are four squares with four different smells. Start from the top square and work your way down).
Imagine doing your weekly shop at the online supermarket and getting a whiff of those gorgeous fresh loaves in the bakery aisle.
Or checking out the perfect picnic hotspot for over Easter weekend and sniffing the scent of the newly-mown grass.
It's an interactive version of scratch and sniff technology that generates an aroma, which has already been encapsulated within a thin layer of gelatine or plastic spheres on paper or card.
When this is rubbed off, you rupture some of these spheres and release the smell.
Simple eh!
Well, now the clever scientists have adapted it to work on your home computer with special panels that can be scratched with your mouse.
As you slowly erase the silver covering, the smell is released and translated into electronic information that gets converted by your processor and wafted out through the speakers.
And seeing as it's taken them around three years to perfect, it's not to be sniffed at!
World Wide Whiff ... check out the newest technology on the net
By JONATHAN WEINBERG and DAVE MASTERS
IT'S the latest piece of technology to be developed for your PC and Sun online readers are about to get an exclusive pre-phew.
Boffins in deepest Essex have invented a new bit of software that turns the Internet into the Stinkernet.
Using your computer speakers, you can now experience smells as well as sounds while you're surfing in cyberspace - go here to "scratch" some squares away and smell them http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001310000-2007140881,00.html (there are four squares with four different smells. Start from the top square and work your way down).
Imagine doing your weekly shop at the online supermarket and getting a whiff of those gorgeous fresh loaves in the bakery aisle.
Or checking out the perfect picnic hotspot for over Easter weekend and sniffing the scent of the newly-mown grass.
It's an interactive version of scratch and sniff technology that generates an aroma, which has already been encapsulated within a thin layer of gelatine or plastic spheres on paper or card.
When this is rubbed off, you rupture some of these spheres and release the smell.
Simple eh!
Well, now the clever scientists have adapted it to work on your home computer with special panels that can be scratched with your mouse.
As you slowly erase the silver covering, the smell is released and translated into electronic information that gets converted by your processor and wafted out through the speakers.
And seeing as it's taken them around three years to perfect, it's not to be sniffed at!
Professor I.S. Mellarat told us: "It's been extremely hard work but we are thrilled with the results.
"Although the software is still in BETA testing stage, we have had scores of people feeding back to us that it will change their web habits for the better.
"There is still some tweaking to be done but I'd welcome any comments from Sun readers as to whether our plan has come up smelling of roses."
But the proof of the pudding is in the smelling and here we've got four panels for you to try.
The results might not be instant, it depends how fast your computer is and how long the cable leads are from the back of your PC to the speakers.
Also, if you've got a cold or sinus trouble, it's likely to have an adverse affect.
Just breathe deeply and look at the picture behind each panel closely.
Make sure to try each one in turn and by the fourth panel, you'll soon realise how this new technology has got right up your nose.
Happy sniffing!
(To scratch each square, keep your mouse button pressed whilst moving it around the square)
thesun.co.uk
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