Scentee is a Japanese mobile app that emits smells. To do that, users need to download the app and purchase a special device that attaches to one’s mobile phone.
Founder Masaru Tange shows me his Scentee device:
The separate device, which costs $35.99, lets users insert fragrance cartridges. Based on your action (like clicking a Facebook like, for example), it will trigger a smell programmed in by an app developer who uses Scentee. There are several fragrance cartridges to choose from and each cartridge packs about 100 sprays. Individual cartridges retail for $4.99.
Scentee’s SDK is available on Github for developers who want to toy around with it. Tange says that it is possible for mobile game developers to emit smells in-game to enhance the gameplay experience. A developer might program Scentee to emit a gunpowder smell every time the player fires a weapon, for example.
Tang created Scentee because he believes that smell is neglected in today’s digital world. In fact, Scentee is actually Tange’s side project. He spends the majority of his time working at Shift Inc, a software testing company that he founded back in 2005.
(Also read: After leaving Zynga, this founder ditched the gaming business for online shopping)
(Editing by Josh Horwitz)
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