[Sigia-l] Sniffin' around

[Ziya Oz]

A team led by Stephen Brewster at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, UK,
has created software and hardware to let computer users attach distinctive
smells ­ the scent of fresh-cut grass or the whiff of chocolate ­ to a batch
of images. The system, dubbed Olfoto, then lets users sort through their
image collection simply by following their noses.

Brewster and colleagues tested volunteers' ability to search through their
own digital photos by smell. Each user first attached smells to different
images, and then tried searching for a particular snapshot by selecting its
odour.

The researchers looked at how well the participants could sniff out their
images compared with sorting by conventional text tags. Although sorting by
smell was far slower, the results were still encouraging, Brewster says.

Smelly cubes

"It's not perfect, but people can do it," he told New Scientist. "It's quite
surprising and it's under-exploited."

<http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10308-find-photos-by-following-yo
ur-nose.html>

OK, you make your own jokes. ;-)

----
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem