Do you ever find yourself eating a simple salad, wishing it were a plate of pulled pork? Finishing off a cup of yogurt that you would prefer to be a chocolate sundae? Or, do you want to experience software with your eyes, ears, hands … and nose? Well a new gadget called Scentee could make all of these things possible.
Scentee is a round, plug-in smartphone accessory that emits fragrances and customizable LED lighting when prompted by a complementary mobile app. Compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, Scentee can be attached through your device’s headphone socket.
What makes Scentee a fun toy to tinker with is the fact that you can load it up with various scent cartridges – while incense and air freshener lovers already know the aromatic quality lavender, jasmine, and rose can have to a home, other surprising additions include coffee, curry, and corn soup, because you know, there’s nothing quite as filling as the scent of Thai chicken curry. Scentee’s Hana Yakiniku app also features additional flavors (technically, flavors) that could very well be the solution to your meat cravings, like beef ribs and baked potato with butter. The video showing off the Yakiniku app even provides three test cases that may hit home (the last one was pretty far-fetched, but it’s still pretty hilarious). Trust us, watch the video in its entirety:
But there’s a much more social use for Scentee, which also has another mobile app that triggers the release of fragrances based on your phone’s social activity. You can program it to emit a scent with a certain color of LED light for either your Facebook notifications or incoming email messages. You can even set it up to work with your phone’s alarm clock, so you can get out of bed in the morning with the smell of coffee waking up your brain.
Right now, the only way to purchase the Scentee device is through Amazon Japan, for roughly $36 – cartridges are priced at over $5 each – but it’s currently listed as “back ordered” and will become available on November 15. According to Engadget, there are plans underway to make Scentee available to the U.S. market, along with exciting new scents like fruits and bacon. So soon enough, you could come to associate Facebook comments with the sweet, sweet scent of bacon. This will either lead to the success or destruction of society as we know it.
