Send smells to your friends with Senti8

Have you ever been taking a walk on a perfect summer evening and wanted to scent the smell of fresh flowers to your loved one on the other side of the planet? Or, maybe you wanted to share the smell of a 4th of July barbecue with a friend to spark up nostalgia? Well, that dream is now a reality all thanks to Senti8.

The Senti8 team recently won the 2014 NYC NASA Space Apps challenge with their 3D-printed, Arduino-powered smell-sender. The ingenious wearable contraption started out as a hacked e-cigarette vaporizer and has evolved into what you see above.

Taking a trip into space can be an experience of a lifetime for many astronauts, yet giving up the comforts and familiarity of home can be even tougher than dealing with zero gravity or confined spaces. In comes Senti8. The idea of the project stemmed from a conversation with an astronaut who remarked the thing he missed most about taking up residency in space was his sense of smell. Thanks to the smell-sending bracelet, these astronauts would now be able to bring along their favorite, nostalgic scents to help reminisce the things they miss the most.

By sending a message through an accompanying smartphone application, one Senti8 wearer can send a series of selected smells to another user. The wrist-mounted device utilizes Adafruit’s FLORA (ATmega32U4) to illuminate a series of NeoPixel LEDs that signify each corresponding smell.

Below you can view an interview with Senti8 team member, where she breaks down the specifics of the device.