Deaf-blindness limits daily human
activities, especially interactive
modes of audio and visual perception. Although the developed standards
have been verified as alternative communication methods, they are
uncommon to the nondisabled due to the complicated learning process
and inefficiency in terms of communicating distance and throughput.
Therefore, the development of communication techniques employing innate
sensory abilities including olfaction related to the cerebral limbic
system processing emotions, memories, and recognition has been suggested
for reducing the training level and increasing communication efficiency.
Here, a skin-integrated and wireless olfactory interface system exploiting
arrays of miniaturized odor generators (OGs) based on melting/solidifying
odorous wax to release smell is introduced for establishing an advanced
communication system between deaf-blind and non-deaf-blind. By optimizing
the structure design of the OGs, each OG device is as small as 0.24
cm3 (length × width × height of 11 mm ×
10 mm × 2.2 mm), enabling integration of up to 8 OGs on the epidermis
between nose and lip for direct and rapid olfactory drive with a weight
of only 24.56 g. By generating single or mixed odors, different linked
messages could be delivered to a user within a short period in a wireless
and programmable way. By adopting the olfactory interface message
delivery system, the recognition rates for the messages have been
improved 1.5 times that of the touch-based method, while the response
times were immensely decreased 4 times. Thus, the presented wearable
olfactory interface system exhibits great potential as an alternative
message delivery method for the deaf-blind.