Cameras should capture smells as well as pictures, says Hewlett-Packard. So it has filed for a patent on a camera that is able to create photos of, for example, Far Eastern markets that smell of a variety of exotic spices, or close-ups of strawberries that smell of ripe fruit.
HP plans two ways of linking smells with a photograph. In an expensive version, a miniature gas chromatography probe could capture a distinctive whiff of the ambient air. A cheaper version will have a library of 鈥渟cent pictures鈥�, such as wet dog, for the photographer to choose from when taking a picture. In each case, a special inkjet printer deposits a mix of basic scents onto the paper to recreate the olfactory experience.
