Sending scents online: new device turns smell into a digital signal

A joint team from Ohio State University and Zhejiang Lab has built Scentronic, an IoT setup that captures an odour in one location and releases it elsewhere over the internet. Their paper appeared in Science Advances on 21 October 2026. The system does not send molecules; it simply forwards a label that tells the receiver which scent to spray.

An electronic nose with metal-oxide sensors analyses volatile compounds and a machine-learning model labels them with more than 96 % accuracy among five trained categories. The label travels via cloud with roughly 65 ms latency. Wearable receivers — a two-channel bracelet, a five-channel necklace, a ring or a handheld unit — then trigger piezoelectric atomisers to release fine droplets.

When 14–16 volunteers tested the output, they correctly identified single scents 73 % of the time and pairs 71 % of the time. Lead researcher Chunyu Yang told Reuters on 23 October that the aim is to enrich remote communication with smell, opening uses in medical smell testing, virtual reality and food e-commerce.

The prototype is still limited to its initial five scents; expanding the library will require fresh sensor training and new liquid cartridges.

Based on information from cryptonews.net