One writer explores the many ways technology can deepen how we experience scents.
Perfume has always existed at the intersection of science and art. A balance of extracted oils, aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents, fragrance formulation involves subtle tweaks and changes until the perfect ratio of notes is achieved. But if perfume creation is already a science, what does the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) mean for the future of the industry?
After all, the science of scent is about more than just making things smell nice. Take the aromachology facet of the fragrance industry. Aromachology is the study of how scents affect human psychology and behaviour, and it examines how fragrance can evoke emotions and memories and even influence actions and responses. (The scent of lavender, for example, brings about a sense of calm, while citrus can offer an invigorating boost.) This strong scent-memory link is due to our brain’s anatomy. When it comes to our other senses (taste, touch, sight and sound), sensory information is received in the thalamus, near the centre of the brain. Smell, however, takes a shortcut, bypassing the thalamus and heading straight to the olfactory bulb at the front of the brain. This direct route is why scents trigger immediate vivid memories and evoke strong reactions like nostalgia or comfort. In fact, research shows that nearly 75 per cent of our everyday emotions are linked to scent.
Given the immense power that smell holds, a growing number of brands are using AI tools to provide customers with bespoke fragrances that offer the most precise, personalized creations ever. Digital perfume house No Ordinary Scent uses an algorithm called Emotiontech to create scents based on meaningful memories. Customers feed the algorithm with emotionally charged images (like snaps from past vacations, weddings or birthday parties), and it extracts emotion tags from the images and links them to fragrance notes,…
Read the full article here
