The purpose of this study is to design an authoring tool and a corresponding device for an olfactory display that can augment the immersion and reality in broadcasting services. The developed authoring tool allows an olfactory display to be properly synchronized with the existing video service by applying the standardized format using ISO/IEC 23005 (MPEG‐V) and the corresponding developed scent display device. To propose the proper data format for the olfactory display, we have analyzed both the multimodal combination and the cross‐modality related to the olfactory display. From the results of the analysis, we derived a set of olfactory parameters for the olfactory display that are related to emotion. The analyzed parameters related to emotion in an olfactory display are synchronization, scent intensity, scent persistence, and hedonic tone. These parameters should be controlled so that the olfactory display can be in harmony with the existing media to augment emotion. In addition, we developed a scent display device that can generate many kinds of scents and that satisfies design conditions for olfactory parameters that are for use with broadcasting services.

Among the human senses, olfactory information still does not have a proper data presentation method unlike that regarding vision and auditory information. It makes presenting the sense of smell into multimedia information impossible, which may be an exploratory field in human computer interaction. In this paper, we propose an olfactory information presentation method, which is a way to use smell as multimedia information, and show an application for scent generation and odor display using a web service. The olfactory information can present smell characteristics such as intensity, persistence, hedonic tone, and odor description. The structure of data format based on olfactory information can also be organized according to data types such as integer, float, char, string, and bitmap. Furthermore, it can be used for data transmitting via a web service and for odor display using a scent generator. The scent generator, which can display information of smell, is developed to generate 6 odors using 6 aroma solutions and a diluted solution with 14 micro-valves and a micropump. Throughout the experiment, we confirm that the remote user can grasp information of smell transmitted by messenger service and request odor display to the computer controlled scent generator. It contributes to enlarge existing virtual reality and to be proposed as a standard reference method regarding olfactory information presentation for future multimedia technology.