Have You Smelt This Photo?

That perfectly instagrammed slice of luscious blueberry cheesecake together with a freshly brewed coffee is just *bite lip* beyond irresistible! Scroll some more and you’ll find yourself starving. Oh, Food Porn! Knowing how the social media crunches on the internet, images are likely to pop out. There are even mobile accessories that can turn your mobiles into a microscope! How awesome is that? On a lighter note, there are photos that can be a fad for a moment, and there are also those ones that have a lasting impact. But if Food Porn kicks in, you might be tempted to just… drool!

Photography, as vastly known, is the art of practice of taking and processing photographs. This art is being practiced to this day since it’s the best representation of a vivid memory there is. And who couldn’t agree more? Those memories caught on camera never fail to take us back to where the photo was taken—figuratively.

Yet J.A. Gottfried, a neurological psychologist, once said that “memories of images begin to fade days or even hours after viewing, whereas recall of smells remains unimpaired for as much as a year.” An eyebrow strikes up for skepticism? Well, how detailed can you articulate the image of an apple in your head than knowing how it smells? Also, did you know that aromas cannot just elicit memories, but they can also excite our emotions, and diminish stress even?

But in the technological sphere, it’s inarguably noticeable that something smells fishy. Try to sniff this to remember: You need not be nosey, because oPhone device together with the oSnap iPhone app can let you smell that photo of luscious blueberry cheesecake, and oh! The aroma of the freshly brewed coffee!

All foodies rejoice, since professor David Edwards along with a team of students of Harvard University have made food porn more realistic than ever! With the oPhone device and the iPhone app oSnap, you can now send out scented photos of your favorite treats to your close circle!

Here’s how it works: Snap a photo, select from the collection of scent notes on the tagging menu that will appear, and the message termed oNote is all set to be sent! As of the moment, there are eight different scents that can be combined. There’s butter, red wine, cocoa beans, and the list goes on. And it also allows you to create over 300,000 unique aroma combinations to your liking. But it won’t work if the recipient does not have the scent-transmitting machine oPhone.

Sadly, we can’t bite to it just yet, because the oPhone is only available at the Museum of Natural History and Le Laboratoire in Paris. Yet, that doesn’t stop Edward and the oNotes team. They are now on their Indiegogo campaign to raise a support on mass-producing the oPhone. Their goal is to reach up to $150,000.

What is it actually for? Well, imagine you’re in a restaurant. Everything in the menu are flat-out mouth-watering. With everything new to you, you choose… this one? No, this one. It really does look tasty, right? And when it was served, all you did was pick your nose as you swallow it with your eyes shut tight! Hope you just knew how it smells, right? With only just a scent, your olfactory system can help you imagine how good it tastes. And maybe someday, we could actually taste it, eh?

These magical machines can do so much; even quitting a bad habit like smoking with your phone is made possible. Who knows? Maybe one day they could send out real foods! Yu-uhm!