OVR Technology announces the release of its Architecture of Scent® platform for virtual reality (VR), which combines hardware, software, and scentware to precisely replicate complex sensory experiences in the digital world. The Architecture of Scent® offers a safe, effective way to layer real-world scent into VR. In doing so, it provides a way for VR content developers to construct realistic, truly immersive experiences for greater impact and outcomes, whether in healthcare, education, training, human connection, or other areas.
“Scent is powerful, critical, and complex,” said Aaron Wisniewski, CEO and co-founder of OVR Technology. “It’s the only one of our senses directly linked to the limbic system of the brain, which is responsible for memory and emotion. Scent’s role in cognition and behavior makes it an imperative aspect of an effective VR experience.”
The Architecture of Scent intelligently responds to a user’s behavior in VR and releases olfactory impressions at exactly the right moment via its three core components:
Hardware: The ION device is the most accurate wearable scent device available. It is a lightweight, wireless microtechnology that fits most head-mounted displays and releases a precise amount of scent at the right moment from a scent cartridge. It mimics the way nature produces scent, fine-tuned down to the part per million and millisecond. Unlike with other olfaction technologies, scent is present only when desired and is immediately gone when not.
Software: OVR Technology has translated the brain’s natural system for interpreting scents and turned it into two languages—one for humans, one for computers—with a software suite that lets them communicate. Click here to download the Architecture of Scent developer package for Unity.
Scentware: Through analytical chemistry and sensory expertise, OVR Technology developed a system to capture, catalog, and re-create the aromatic world, one scent at a time. This ever-growing Scent Library is OVR Technology’s scentware component.
OVR Technology partners with commercial, federal, and academic organizations for better outcomes in healthcare, therapy, training, and education markets. One academic partner, Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, said: “Virtual scent is in many ways the new frontier. Olfaction is such a powerful cue for presence, as well as for priming memories. Every time I have done a demo in VR with scent layered in thoughtfully, I am blown away by the value it adds.”
Another partner is Dr. Albert “Skip” Rizzo, director for Medical Virtual Reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and creator of Bravemind, an award-winning clinical virtual reality exposure therapy program for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rizzo will use OVR Technology’s platform in the next iteration of Bravemind. Such therapies are critical, as 20 percent of military veterans suffer from PTSD and 21 veterans die by suicide every day in the United States.
“OVR’s platform is a remarkable piece of technology,” said Rizzo. “It’s a leap forward for us and a dream come true to have people with the technical expertise to build the equipment and the knowledge to develop custom scents for our specific program needs. Bravemind is an ideal application for OVR Technology’s Architecture of Scent.”
The Architecture of Scent Hardware, Software, and Scentware Platform is available now for enterprise. For more information, please visit https://ovrtechnology.com/technology/.
About OVR Technology
OVR Technology was founded in 2017 and is based in Burlington, Vermont. We combine our most primal sense, scent, with today’s most advanced technology to unlock the potential of virtual reality. Better virtual reality, better reality. Learn more at https://ovrtechnology.com/.
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Name: Alexandra Tursi
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Website URL: http://ovrtechnology.com/
