If I want to drown out the sounds around me, I can put on my headphones/in my ear buds, and turn on my favourite music. Or listen to the radio.

But there's nothing to stop the smell from that delicious/disgusting cup of soup my boss is drinking from driving me crazy...

I propose nose buds, which can be inserted in the nostrils and mask exterior smells by releasing minute quantities of essential aromas, combining them to your favourite smells (mown grass, pavements after rain etc). The more expensive versions can be hooked up to your smartphone so you can go through or share 'playlists' of smells, or listen to 'smellyvision' casts.
-- yamahito, Jul 06 2011

Quarter Past Lemon Quarter_20Past_20Lemon
Combine the two for stinky smell suppression and eyes-free timetelling. [calum, Jul 06 2011]

Discussion of smell cancelling herein Anti-smell
[calum, Jul 06 2011]

iSmell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISmell
The unfortunately named desktop version of this. Just needs miniaturising. [TomP, Jul 09 2011]

Halfbaked in 'Telempath' by Spider Robinson (no relation).
-- spidermother, Jul 06 2011


Good question. I suppose to enable sniffing at all it would mix the scents with filtered air.

Sophisticated expensive models would feature 'smell cancelling' algorithms which would detect the smell and compensate to cancel the external aroma.
-- yamahito, Jul 06 2011


//How does one breathe while using this contraption?//

There's a trick you can do where you breathe through your mouth. It's sort of like talking, but inwards as well as outwards, and without making the noises.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 07 2011


Your nose is *much* more sensitive than your mouth.

Also, most deoderizers works simply by masking bad smells with a stronger sweeter smell. So you could make this work and still breath through your nose by having it squirt things up your nose as your breathe in, rather than plugging your nose.

Just as long as you can find something to mask the smell of stale popcorn!
-- DrCurry, Jul 09 2011


But how would they stay in unless you jammed 'em up there good and proper?

Also missing out on the chance to do a little filtration...
-- yamahito, Jul 11 2011


Just saw someone plugged into her powered wheelchair by an oxygen tube - much the same technology as that, I imagine.
-- DrCurry, Jul 12 2011


(Apologies to Robert Herrick)

Gather ye nose-buds while ye may,
Old odors are a-smelling,
And that sweet rosy scent today,
Tomorrow will cause yelling.

{To be continued, or maybe (s)not...}
-- csea, Jul 12 2011


I wonder if Rupert Murdoch would consider this product to be adequate protection from the malodorous fallout of "News of the World".
-- jurist, Jul 12 2011



random, halfbakery