Machine prints food smells onto postcards

Soon, postcards may contain not just sights but also its smells, if a concept device developed by a student in China becomes reality.

 

The device, which uses camera, printer and "smell extractor," is part of a Sony design competition, news site Wired UK reported.

 

"We think this idea is very interesting. In China many people love to take photos of delicious food and upload them to social networking services for family and friends to see. This design can help record the memory of the event too," it quoted a spokesperson for Sony China Creative Centre as saying.

 

According to the spokesperson, recording the smell of food is very interesting "because you get good and bad smells, it will make communication with friends more amusing."

 

Li Jingxuan, a student of the Fashion and Art Design Institute of Donghua University, invented the food printer due to her love of good food and travel.

 

Wired UK said the concept uses an aroma sensor at the top of the machine, which would analyze the smell coming from items like food.

 

It will then simulate that smell by mixing different "aroma inks" stored inside the machine.

 

"Once the right formula was achieved, it would be printed onto part of the postcard," Wired UK said.

 

Wired UK cited a report in The China Daily that the device won the "most fun" award in the Sony Student Design Workshop 2012. — TJD, GMA News