h a l f b a k e r yBirth of a Notion.
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I am an absent-minded ninny when I get involved in a project that tickles my fancy. There's no telling when I'll come out of my creative coma long enough to eat a proper meal or get the sleep I need. This is because I cannot look at clocks when fully engrossed in something I find fun.
It gets so
bad that I'll leave food cooking and won't find it till hours later, still simmering into a miserable lump on the range. By then, it's too late to look at the time.
I need a Mad-Professor's watch, a watch that gets me where I least expect it: the nose-buds.
The watch itself would have a face, each number being replaced by a small icon of the smell it represents. For instance, three o'clock's a lemon and four is a rose.
All day long the smells of one hour fade into the odor of the next, and I am kept blissfully aware of the time.
And for those of us still trying to write a play and cook noodles at the same time, there's an odiferous alarm of, say, burnt hair, to snap you to and get you moving!
So, whaddya say? Meet me at a quarter of Chocolate!
Smell messaging
http://www.ananova....u=3Dnews.technology
Deliver smells to mobile phones. [hippo, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
Time-sensitive 3D shading
http://www.halfbake...tive_203D_20shading
Another idea to help people not lose track of time when sitting at the computer. [krelnik, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
Scent Alarm Clock
http://www.technove...News.asp?NewsNum=69
Starts emiting scent 30 minutes prior to the alarm. The scent they have as "unreadable" is "lemony mint". [jutta, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
Odors insufficient to rouse subjects from sleep
http://www.scienced...05/040518075747.htm
"No-one responded to peppermint during sleep." [jutta, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
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Annotation:
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Half past oregano.
10 minutes 'til lilac.
New car o'clock. |
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Delivery system definitely exists. Getting it all to fit on your wrist without having to hire porters may have to bake a bit longer. |
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[jurist] is right, a realistic prototype is far in the making. Chemically produced smell not withstanding the reservoirs to hold the odors would be colostomous at best. At any rate, simplification to smells only at the quarters, halves, and on-the-hours would be small enough to fit a hip pack, which would not greatly mar the general appearance of most mad-professors. |
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This would be easy to fit into a watch. Imagine - slightly oversized wristwatch comprising a simple circular face with a 1/12th segment removed. Connected to the back of watch is a small aroma-pack built like a trivial pursuit pie with 12 slices, each reservoir filled with a separate aroma-producing chemical, and a semi-permeable cover holding it in. Every hour the empty segment of the face rests over 1 of the reservoirs, allowing the aroma to escape (perhaps aided by a tiny built in fan to aid circulation). The aroma packs can be removed and replaced when the aromas begin to fade. |
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In time you would come to recognise the precise mixture of aromas as two segments are partially uncovered, allowing you to make a fair guess at the exact time. If you built the skill sufficiently it could be your party trick to amaze restless children and boring in-laws. |
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Wonderful idea. Crossiant. |
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AromaJet is working on digital scent generation. |
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[sambwiches], that's a clever solution. |
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...and no more "o'clock", either. Now we would say things like "rose o'nose". |
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I'll set my alarm to bacon in the morning. |
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Croissant for the idea, but fishbone for the mental images produced by the word "colostomous". Which to give, which to give? Croissant, methinks. |
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<aside> Apparantly one of the
most recognisable smells there is
(particularly for Americans) is that
of Crayola Crayons. </aside> |
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Interesting, I heard somewhere that the most popular smell in America was banana. |
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From the smell that pervades most shops I go into, I thought it was vanilla. |
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coffee in the morning and chamomile at bedtime for me. |
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Great idea, but what about olfactory interference? If two users are anywhere near each other, their odours would mingle. With different odours, this might just confuse, but suppose they used the same odour for two different hours? |
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[Onionbread], I don't think the two conflicting smells will bear much influence on each other. If you are close to a different smell-zone watch, you can always bring your watch close to your nose for a quick smell. If it is someone you spend a lot of time with and your smells are intermingling you might want to just say, "Hey, we smell really good together!" as a way of telling her/him how much you like them. And if you are having a great time with this person you won't mind losing track of time anyways.
In the future, perhaps there will be standard smell-zones just as we have time zones now. Grenwich Mean Time may become something else and every watch will smell the same hour. |
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01:14, and telling the time with the obsolete numerical system ends...
now. |
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It's a quarter past sweaty nightclub, and I'm off to bed. |
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7 hours until big exam, and all I can smell is sweat... Terror sweat *Dr. Hibbert chuckle* |
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This is an idea whose time came half a croissant ago. |
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However, as a mad professor myself, I wonder if something so subtle as a smell could cut through my frenetic reveries and warn me that I need to eat, sleep, or heck, even use the bathroom (I can really hold it when I'm losing track of time). |
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The smell of burning food on the stove, or burning midnight oil, or heaven forbid, burning bladder (ew) might do the trick, but these are not the pleasant smells about which we've been rhapsodizing. Indeed it is the pleasant smells for which I have heaped my own croissant upon the others gathered here. |
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I say make sambwiches' prototype for fun and profit, and for snapping out trancelike concentration, I'll continue to rely on what I've always relied: the sharp words of a loved one. |
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"Hurry up honey cakes, it's already a quarter till sugar bun! At this rate, it'll be half-past punkin' pie before we get there!" |
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It is a delightful idea that could
also apply to the date on the
watch. It smells better as you get
closer to friday. (Rebunned) + |
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A taste watch might be more doable. This would be a disc held between cheek and gum which as it slowly rotated through the day would open successive compartments, each on the hour. Each compartment would let out the flavor of the hour, which would gradually drift into the mouth over about 10 minutes until exhausted. At the end of the day the watch would be spent, and a new one would be needed for the next day (helps sell more watches). They would come in monthlong rolls like a roll of quarters. |
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This watch would work via a plastic spring. There would be no batteries - I am wary of this after [UB} noted the thousands who die each year from chewing 9v batteries. |
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The only thing that keeps me from
fully enjoying this idea, is that the
stamina of the olfactory sense is
tiny- that is, if you have a scent
that's on for an entire hour, it will
go to waste for about 59 minutes,
because you grow accustomed to
it.. it's like walking into a
somewhat foul-smelling
environment, or putting on
perfume/cologne. However,
[sambwiches] the idea of kicking it
in very temporarily as an 'alarm'
would definitely be the way to go,
in my mind... but, while you're at
it, put a tiny little spike on the
back face of it and have it knick
you on the wrist every hour...
that'll snap you out of it! |
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<obligatory Robert Duvall post> |
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Maybe different smells for AM and PM. Any time after 10:00 PM could have a soothing bedtime smell. Even better, these could be customized. A child's bedside clock could awaken them with the smell of waffles (or any other morning smell) and at night, maybe the ocean? For students trying to keep awake studying at night, the bracing mountain air. It could even be seasonal! During the humdrum of winter, you can simply draw your watch to your face and breathe in the aroma of honeysuckle. ++good, one of the best I've read on the 'bakery for a while. |
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Apologies for non-contributory churn but "colostomous" is my new favourite word. Thank you, [k_sra]. |
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*phew* smells like Monday. |
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[+] good one. If it was in common use nobody'd need to ask the time either. |
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A scratch and sniff watch...the hour hand scratches the face. |
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I love the smell of eight o'clock in the morning. |
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Brilliant. I would like a wall clock version [+] |
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