The transmission of olfactory information together with audiovisual information is now attracting much attention. However, the information is difficult to synchronize because of problems of scent lingering in the air and olfactory adaptation. We aimed at minimizing the amount of odorant presented to users in order to mitigate these problems, and developed an olfactory display that is able to present scents precisely. The display uses pulse ejection, whereby scents are emitted for only short periods of time. In this study, we aimed to mitigate the above-mentioned problems and to measure the time characteristics of olfaction in a single breath, which are difficult to measure by conventional methods. As a result, the most effective conditions for using a small amount of odorant in a single breath were revealed. These results are expected to ease the synchronization of olfactory and audiovisual information.

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Abstract. Understanding and attention value of the advertisement will be advanced by adding scents to the digital signage. However, it was difficult to have corresponding one-to-many relationships, movements of users, and precise chronological control of scents. In this study, using mobile olfactory display, we propose the digital signage with scent which takes account of users' movements. The concept of this study is constructing the system having scents, movements, and communication. This system was built by enabling to receive the scent ejection signal from the advertisement, achieve the distance by the image of web-camera, and eject the scents with the strength in accordance with distance, to have the control of scents which accedes to substance of advertisement and positional relationship. As a result of evaluations, the olfactory information was carried down to users with great accuracy. The scents production of the advertisements will be possible with the use of this system.

Considering the recent increase of interest in the transmission of olfactory information alongside audio/visual information, the authors have developed an olfactory display, based on an inkjet printer mechanism, which emits scents for short periods of time and has high control and provides repeated stable pulse emissions of scents. By using pulse emission, the authors achieved chronological control for presentation of scents and were able to synchronize the pulse with human inspiration. Such synchronization is important because humans detect scents when they breathe in, inhaling scent molecules in the air. Applying pulse emission, the authors measured various human olfactory characteristics; furthermore, they developed scent presentation techniques to create perspective and to switch scents rapidly. This chapter introduces details about the olfactory display and scent presentation techniques using pulse ejection.