The Smell of War

The first Scent Collar prototype was completed in 2002. The version Morie holds now was finished in 2005. If she can obtain additional funding (her Scent Collar reserves ran dry at the end of last year), she hopes to build a third version with 10 scent-emitting modules. Each of the Scent Collar´s four modules has a reservoir, which Morie now loads with a fragrance-soaked wick. Within each module, a small arm can move to open either two ports, one port or none, releasing a controllable amount of scent into a chamber above. Odorant molecules drift through the chamber, out a vent and up toward the user´s nose. For a stronger smell, a micro-fan in the chamber blows on a low or high setting. The release is triggered when the user reaches different points in the simulation. Producing only small, precisely targeted amounts of odor, the Scent Collar solves the top two problems plaguing room- and
theater-scale systems: the difficulty of making rapid scent changes and of clearing the air of an old scent when you want to release a new one.

Morie checks the batteries. The collar is ready for its demonstration. First, though, we´re going on a field trip.

We´re in a hang glider. It dives into a river gorge, the air fragrant with pines, swoops through an orange grove, sweet with sun-warmed citrus, and glides over the ocean through currents of fresh, salty air. At last the glider touches down and we´re . . . back at Disney´s California Adventure, in a theater complete with levitating seats, a panoramic screen, gusting wind and piped-in smells.

Morie and I are on a smelling tour of the park. Shortcomings notwithstanding-the grove smelled like orange juice rather than blossoms and soil-theme parks have some of the best olfactory simulations around. Leaving California Adventure and entering Disneyland proper, we walk down â€Main Street USA,†tantalized by the aromas of chocolate, caramel apple and waffle cone. The odors could be real or they could be fake, blasted by the
hidden scent cannons that Disney calls Smellitzers. Boarding cars for a ride through the Haunted Mansion, we suddenly get a whiff of stale graveyard air.

Disneyland is an inspirational environment for Morie, and a familiar one. In the early 1990s, she worked at the University of Central Florida´s Institute for Simulation and Training, which works closely with the military and is near Disneyworld, where she visited often. When she changed jobs to teach computer animation at Disney Feature Animation, her offices moved to Disneyworld itself, and she and her colleagues were frequently called away from their desks to test new rides.

Morie´s theme park/Hollywood/military overlap isn´t as unusual as you might think. Central Florida and Southern California are the capitals of military and entertainment-world simulation, and the industries of fun and war swap technology, ideas and personnel. â€You know the military-industrial complex, the thing Eisenhower warned us against?†Morie says as we head for the park exit. â€Now we have the military-entertainment complex.â€

Back at the ICT, I don the goggles and Scent Collar. My first, guileless mission ended with the attacking Doberman. For my second mission, I take a left out of the culvert and race down a dry riverbed to a car flipped on its side. I take cover behind it, then peek up at the sentry. After a couple minutes, he leans back to take a nap. I run up the hillside through the trees. I can smell them; I´m surrounded by them. I reach the corner of the building. Beside it a rebel is using a blowtorch to remove the serial number from a truck. A metallic smell fills my nostrils.

Maybe I´m not 100 percent in this virtual world. But I´m no longer completely in cubicle-land either. When Morie was setting up the demo, I tried it first without smell. It felt more or less like a fancy videogame. With smell, I feel much more like I´m in a real place. DarkCon is consuming me. Morie is saying something, but she sounds far away. I barely make out her words: â€I think we´re losing him in there.â€

James Vlahos wrote about the riskiness of everyday life in the July 2005 issue.

Hear more about author James Vlahos's experience in the Army's new smell simulator on the PopSci Podcast.