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Smell,
multimedia's
third
sense |
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| Day after day, multimedia is
constantly changing as new functionality is
being added all the time. It has been observed
that a new hurdle is crossed every ten years,
thus offering new perspectives: |
first
there was text in the 70's, then images
in the 80's. The 90's brought sound, and
video arrived at the turn of the century.
What will be the next multimedia revolution
of tomorrow? |
| Our vision is that smell will become
multimedia's third sense, adding new perspectives
that have not been exploited until now. |
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Exhalia provides custom-made, ready-to-use
solutions that allows smell to be added
to any type of multimedia source: internet,
CD-ROM, interactive terminals, audiovisual,
games, etc. |
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Directed
towards professionals, our solutions
apply primarily to the following
sectors: |
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• cosmetic
perfumery,
• agro-foods,
• museography,
• education. |
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The
main uses in applying this technology
are: |
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• publicity
events: product launches, road-shows,
sensorial areas, stands, press relations,
etc.
• olfactory
marketing: sales events, olfactory POPA,
gifts, customer loyalty,
•
training: course
materials, e-learning, edutainment applications,
etc.
• And
many more uses yet to come... |
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The major difference with the other actors
in the market is that Exhalia is able to
seamlessly synchronise images, sound and
smell on all multimedia sources, whether
remotely via a telecommunications network
or on a local station. |
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Exhalia's
olfactory multimedia service operates in the
following way: |
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•
A smell distributor
is connected to the device that plays the
multimedia application,
a PC for example.
• Smell
distributor commands are inserted into the
multimedia application using Exhalia tools.
• The
olfactory multimedia application, mixing
images, sound and smell, is played on this
device.
• The
smell distributor commands included in this
application are interpreted by the Exhalia
software which then drives the smell distributor
in order to release these smells.
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The concept was developed within the framework
of a France Télécom research
and development project called "Perfumed
Web".
Exhalia took over the R&D work
in 2004 and now offers complete solutions
based on this technology.
The initial idea was to add smell to images
and to sound that was already deployed on
the telecommunications networks, with the
purpose of offering new uses over the internet.
The project went
through 3 development phases:
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Using the initial idea,
work consisting in demonstrating that this
idea was feasible through the implementation
of a demonstrator. This made it possible
to show the first olfactory Web sites and
the beginnings of olfactory television... |
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Based on this demonstrator,
the various elements in the system were
industrialised in order to be implemented
for new web sites and in order to offer
new formats: CD-ROM, games, television,
video, etc.
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During this period, with
the fad that the concept enjoyed, an elaborated
pre-commercial offer was tested by about
a dozen partners in order to confirm the
technical and commercial aspects.
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This
project, during the entire development phase, enjoyed
a high degree of coverage by the press |
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Patented
innovative technology |
| The central core of Exhalia's
technology is protected by 3 international
patents, and the company is always striving
to offer even more innovative services via
en extensive R&D programme.
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Exhalia was founded in 2004
in Saint Malo. In 2005, it took over the entire
amount of the technology and know-how of France
Télécom's R&D project.
Exhalia Japan was created in 2005 in Osaka (Japan)
in order to offer this technology on the Asian
market.
Click
here to visit Exhalia Japan's web site. |
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