VR could benefit dementia patients via images of familiar locations and odours

There were various stickers that were available with the technology built in to them along with a variety of books.

I thought I was pretty special though when I received a t-shirt for Christmas with a big picture of a strawberry that, when scratched, smelled like a strawberry. It probably only lasted a few washes but I was impressed nonetheless.

Just like penicillin; Super Glue; Post-It Notes and laminated glass, scratch 'n' sniff was an accidental invention.

In the days before photocopiers, one method of replicating the written word was to put a piece of carbon paper between two pieces of paper.

Gale Matson, working for 3M, worked on a method to create copy paper that was carbonless. The replication inks were infused in microcapsules within the paper and broke apart with pressure.

It turns out that you can encapsulate ink - but you can also encapsulate scents.

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Scratch 'n' sniff was born in 1965, and became very popular in the late '70s through to the mid '80s, while tear-apart perfume strips were introduced in 1981.

Jump forward several decades. The VR experience is becoming increasingly immersive. The quality of the headsets is improving along with the content available for VR.

When wearing a headset and earbuds, it is easy to become lost in another world.

But that is only working on two of our senses - sight and hearing. To a lesser extent, there are options available for touch. What about smell?

You will be pleased to read that researchers from Beihang University and the City University of Hong Kong have created the ability to deliver scents in a VR environment. The delivery method is either via a wearable stuck on the upper lip, or with a small mask.

The researchers have been able to create up to thirty different scents so far with scented wax that is heated to release the desired scent. Delivery time is less than one and a half seconds.

Walking through a bed of roses in a VR world and smelling roses sounds like an even more immersive experience. Scents include pineapple, ginger, rosemary and, for some twisted reason, the smell of the durian fruit.

The smell of durian has been described as a mixture of pig-excrement, raw sewage and onions, so walking in to a VR scene of a Zombie Apocalypse accompanied by the smell of the durian fruit also sounds somewhat immersive - if also somewhat unpleasant.

At this stage researchers are simply working on efficient and reproducible methods of delivering scents and bringing that to market in an efficient manner.

As for the uses, not only can I see game manufacturers excited at what they can add to their games, but I can see other potential uses.

Marcel Proust coined the term 'involuntary memory' in a novel published in 1913 referring to the memory recall of certain smells.

It has been hypothesised that dementia patients may still have available autobiographical memories that need suitable triggers, such as smells, to release them.

I speculate the possibility of a dementia treatment featuring a VR headset with images of family members and familiar surroundings along with smells from the past to trigger some recollections - but much more work is needed in this area.