A Handheld Olfactory Display For Smell-Enabled VR Games

Abstract

We describe a class of olfactory displays located at the hand, well-suited to support exploratory and active smelling behavior. We have developed a handheld olfactory display for the HTC Vive VR environment, and validated it in a two-step method that combines qualitative user evaluation with an empirical task-based study. The results of our qualitative study suggest that handheld olfactory displays may enhance a sense of presence in virtual environments. Our validation method is suitable for testing instruments that engage novel forms of smell interaction, and seek to provide clear and consistent output for empirically-validated olfactory research.