Laura Donohue got the chance to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears in a way you've never read it.
"I smelled some very delicious hot chocolate. I also smelled some very nice
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flowers and a little bit of coffee," she explained.
The book Goldilocks and the Three Bears: The Smelly Version, is just one of many new scent products for digital devices. It works through what's called the "oPhone," integrated with an iPad or other smart device.
"You swipe thru the pages and then, when you read that bit of story, you can hit a button and via Bluetooth the iPad speaks to the oBook or to the oPhone and releases a pre-recorded aroma or fragrance," explained Charlie Melcher, founder of Future of Story
telling.
Melcher says it can be used with books, songs and movies. what makes it possible is something called an oChip, which comes in a device you sniff when reading the book.
"Each chip has four different fragrances in it, so it can release either a single fragrance or a combination of those four fragrances," he explained.
There's also the Scentee that snaps on to your device. It lets you assign a scent to certain people who you interact with on social media, giving yo
u a poof of fragrance when they send a notification like a text or give a thumbs up to a photo you post.
"In the way that you might send someone a photograph or send them a emoticon or Emoji, you will be able to send them a fragrance," said Melcher. "So, instead of sending you a picture of roses, I can send you the fragrance of roses."
Dr. Rachel Herz, a world-renowned expert on the psychology of smell, says this scented technology has great potential with sh
aring our everyday experiences.
"The sense of smell is so important to every aspect of our life, that if we can bring it into the digital world as well as our non digital world, then we can have that much more of a richer experience," Herz said.
The technology is even in fabrics, with flat, scented oNotes chips that can be incorporated into clothing.
"When we reconnect to a smell from our childhood or from some moment in our lives, that's a flood of experience, of image, of feelings come unlocked with that," Melcher explained.
Consumer like Donohue are loving the scented experience.
"You definitely get a little more immersed into the story," she said.
These devices and apps are already available to consumers. The oPhone is priced around $150 and the Scentee is about $70.