Get ready to smell things in virtual reality.
The future of touch and smell in virtual worlds
A virtual reality climate change experience, making its debut at the 2021 Venice Biennale, aims to simulate Samoa by letting you interact with the virtual environment and smell local elements. It’s one of a growing number of technologies trying to harness more of your senses in VR.
“The closer our virtual experiences are to our real experiences, the more effective they are,” Aaron Wisniewski, CEO of OVR Technology, which makes the equipment that produces the scent for the exhibit, said in an email interview. “We generally refer to that feeling — when the virtual world feels real — as presence. To maximize presence, we first wanted to understand where that feeling comes from in our everyday lives.”
Samoa is a country in the South Pacific that is threatened by rising sea levels. The exhibition, called “Shifting Homes,” is described by its creators as an immersive virtual journey into a possible future for the island. It aims to warn of impending climate change in the region by presenting a VR world of archaeological features and disappearing cultural histories.
