skip to main content
10.1145/3411764.3445300acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Stereo-Smell via Electrical Trigeminal Stimulation

Published: 07 May 2021 Publication History

Abstract

We propose a novel type of olfactory device that creates a stereo-smell experience, i.e., directional information about the location of an odor, by rendering the readings of external odor sensors as trigeminal sensations using electrical stimulation of the user's nasal septum. The key is that the sensations from the trigeminal nerve, which arise from nerve-endings in the nose, are perceptually fused with those of the olfactory bulb (the brain region that senses smells). As such, we propose that electrically stimulating the trigeminal nerve is an ideal candidate for stereo-smell augmentation/substitution that, unlike other approaches, does not require implanted electrodes in the olfactory bulb. To realize this, we engineered a self-contained device that users wear across their nasal septum. Our device outputs by stimulating the user's trigeminal nerve using electrical impulses with variable pulse-widths; and it inputs by sensing the user's inhalations using a photoreflector. It measures 10x23 mm and communicates with external gas sensors using Bluetooth. In our user study, we found the key electrical waveform parameters that enable users to feel an odor's intensity (absolute electric charge) and direction (phase order and net charge). In our second study, we demonstrated that participants were able to localize a virtual smell source in the room by using our prototype without any previous training. Using these insights, our device enables expressive trigeminal sensations and could function as an assistive device for people with anosmia, who are unable to smell.

References

[1]
Al Aïn, S. and Frasnelli, J.A. 2017. Intranasal Trigeminal Chemoreception. Conn's Translational Neuroscience. Elsevier. 379–397.
[2]
Bach-y-Rita, P. and W. Kercel, S. 2003. Sensory substitution and the human–machine interface. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 7, 12 (Dec. 2003), 541–546.
[3]
Blomqvist, E.H. 2004. Consequences of olfactory loss and adopted coping strategies. Rhinology. 42, 4 (Dec. 2004), 189–194.
[4]
Bonfils, P. 2008. Accidents domestiques chez 57 patients ayant une perte sévère de l'odorat. La Presse Médicale. 37, 5 (May 2008), 742–745.
[5]
Brand, G. 2006. Olfactory/trigeminal interactions in nasal chemoreception. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 30, 7 (2006), 908–917.
[6]
Brooks, J. 2020. Trigeminal-based Temperature Illusions. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’20). (2020).
[7]
Burgués, J. 2019. Smelling Nano Aerial Vehicle for Gas Source Localization and Mapping. Sensors. 19, 3 (Jan. 2019), 478.
[8]
Burgués, J. and Marco, S. 2018. Low Power Operation of Temperature-Modulated Metal Oxide Semiconductor Gas Sensors. Sensors. 18, 2 (Jan. 2018), 339.
[9]
Cheok, A.D. and Karunanayaka, K. 2018. Virtual Taste and Smell Technologies for Multisensory Internet and Virtual Reality. Springer International Publishing.
[10]
Choi, M.H. 2018. Wearable Olfactory Augmentation Device for Hazardous Gas Detection. 2018 Design of Medical Devices Conference (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Apr. 2018), V001T10A014.
[11]
Cometto-Muñiz, J.E. and Cain, W.S. 1990. Thresholds for odor and nasal pungency. Physiology & Behavior. 48, 5 (Nov. 1990), 719–725.
[12]
Croy, I. 2014. Human olfactory lateralization requires trigeminal activation. NeuroImage. 98, (Sep. 2014), 289–295.
[13]
Findler, G. and Feinsod, M. 1982. Sensory evoked response to electrical stimulation of the trigeminal nerve in humans. Journal of Neurosurgery. 56, 4 (Apr. 1982), 545–549.
[14]
Frasnelli, J. 2006. Chemosensory specific reduction of trigeminal sensitivity in subjects with olfactory dysfunction. Neuroscience. 142, 2 (Oct. 2006), 541–546.
[15]
Frasnelli, J. 2007. Interactions between Olfaction and the Trigeminal System: What Can Be Learned from Olfactory Loss. Cerebral Cortex. 17, 10 (Oct. 2007), 2268–2275.
[16]
Frasnelli, J. 2004. Responsiveness of human nasal mucosa to trigeminal stimuli depends on the site of stimulation. Neuroscience Letters. 362, 1 (May 2004), 65–69.
[17]
Fujino, Y. 2019. Odor Modulation by Warming/Cooling Nose Based on Cross-modal Effect. 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) (Mar. 2019), 929–930.
[18]
Hariri, S. 2016. Electrical stimulation of olfactory receptors for digitizing smell. Proceedings of the 2016 workshop on Multimodal Virtual and Augmented Reality - MVAR ’16 (Tokyo, Japan, 2016), 1–4.
[19]
Holbrook, E.H. 2019. Induction of smell through transethmoid electrical stimulation of the olfactory bulb: Induced smell through electrical stimulation. International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology. 9, 2 (Feb. 2019), 158–164.
[20]
Hummel, T. 1998. Chemosensory event-related potentials change with age. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology/Evoked Potentials Section. 108, 2 (Mar. 1998), 208–217.
[21]
Iannilli, E. 2008. Trigeminal activation using chemical, electrical, and mechanical stimuli: Pain. 139, 2 (Oct. 2008), 376–388.
[22]
Ishimaru, T. 1997. Olfactory Evoked Potential Produced by Electrical Stimulation of the Human Olfactory Mucosa. Chemical Senses. 22, 1 (1997), 77–81.
[23]
Kaczmarek, K.A. 1994. Electrotactile haptic display on the fingertips: preliminary results. Proceedings of 16th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (Baltimore, MD, USA, 1994), 940–941.
[24]
Kajimoto, H. 2012. Electrotactile Display with Real-Time Impedance Feedback Using Pulse Width Modulation. IEEE Transactions on Haptics. 5, 2 (Apr. 2012), 184–188.
[25]
Kajimoto, H. 2003. SmartTouch - augmentation of skin sensation with electrocutaneous display. 11th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 2003. HAPTICS 2003. Proceedings. (Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2003), 40–46.
[26]
Keller, A. and Malaspina, D. 2013. Hidden consequences of olfactory dysfunction: a patient report series. BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders. 13, 1 (Dec. 2013), 8.
[27]
Kobal, G. 1989. Is there directional smelling? Experientia. 45, 2 (Feb. 1989), 130–132.
[28]
Kodama, R. 2019. Evaluation on Context Recognition Using Temperature Sensors in the Nostrils. Sensors. 19, 7 (Mar. 2019), 1528.
[29]
Kohnotoh, A. and Ishida, H. 2008. Active Stereo Olfactory Sensing System for Localization of Gas/Odor Source. 2008 Seventh International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (San Diego, CA, USA, 2008), 476–481.
[30]
Ku, J. 2008. Ozone in Workplace Atmospheres. Technical Report #ID-214. OSHA Salt Lake Technical Center.
[31]
Lee, J. 2017. Itchy Nose: Discreet Gesture Interaction Using EOG Sensors in Smart Eyewear. Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (New York, NY, USA, 2017), 94–97.
[32]
Lundstrom, J. and Hummel, T. 2006. Sex-specific hemispheric differences in cortical activation to a bimodal odor. Behavioural Brain Research. 166, 2 (Jan. 2006), 197–203.
[33]
Lundström, J.N. 2005. Sex differentiated responses to intranasal trigeminal stimuli. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 57, 3 (Sep. 2005), 181–186.
[34]
Maag, B. 2018. W-Air: Enabling Personal Air Pollution Monitoring on Wearables. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies. 2, 1 (Mar. 2018), 1–25.
[35]
Mamun, M.A.A. and Yuce, M.R. 2019. Sensors and Systems for Wearable Environmental Monitoring towards IOT-enabled Applications: A Review. IEEE Sensors Journal. (2019), 1–1.
[36]
Matsukura, H. 2017. Tracking of a Gas Plume With the Aid of Olfactory Assist Mask. IEEE Sensors Journal. 17, 16 (Aug. 2017), 5332–5340.
[37]
McKemy, D.D. 2002. Identification of a cold receptor reveals a general role for TRP channels in thermosensation. Nature. 416, 6876 (Mar. 2002), 52–58.
[38]
Meijer, P.B.L. 1992. An experimental system for auditory image representations. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. 39, 2 (Feb. 1992), 112–121.
[39]
Meredith, M. 1988. Trigeminal Response to Odors. Sensory Systems: II: Senses Other than Vision. J.M. Wolfe, ed. Birkhäuser Boston. 139–139.
[40]
Murphy, C. 1983. Age-related Effects on the Threshold, Psychophysical Function, and Pleasantness of Menthol. Journal of Gerontology. 38, 2 (Mar. 1983), 217–222.
[41]
Nakamoto, T. 2020. Virtual environment with smell using wearable olfactory display and computational fluid dynamics simulation. 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) (Atlanta, GA, USA, Mar. 2020), 713–720.
[42]
Nordin, S. 2011. Effects of smell loss on daily life and adopted coping strategies in patients with nasal polyposis with asthma. Acta Oto-Laryngologica. 131, 8 (Aug. 2011), 826–832.
[43]
Piedrahita, R. 2014. The next generation of low-cost personal air quality sensors for quantitative exposure monitoring. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. 7, 10 (Oct. 2014), 3325–3336.
[44]
Ranasinghe, N. 2018. Season Traveller: Multisensory Narration for Enhancing the Virtual Reality Experience. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2018), 1–13.
[45]
Raphael, G. 1989. Gustatory rhinitis: A syndrome of food-induced rhinorrhea. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 83, 1 (Jan. 1989), 110–115.
[46]
Rawson, N. 2011. Findings and recommendations from the joint NIST-AGA workshop on odor masking. Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 116, 6 (Nov. 2011), 839.
[47]
Rodríguez-Molinero, A. 2013. Normal Respiratory Rate and Peripheral Blood Oxygen Saturation in the Elderly Population. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 61, 12 (Dec. 2013), 2238–2240.
[48]
Rossi, M. and Brunelli, D. 2017. Gas Sensing on Unmanned Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities. 2017 New Generation of CAS (NGCAS) (Genova, Italy, Sep. 2017), 117–120.
[49]
Sato, R. 2020. Detection of Gas Drifting Near the Ground by Drone Hovering Over: Using Airflow Generated by Two Connected Quadcopters. Sensors. 20, 5 (Mar. 2020), 1397.
[50]
Schaefer, M.L. 2002. Trigeminal collaterals in the nasal epithelium and olfactory bulb: A potential route for direct modulation of olfactory information by trigeminal stimuli: Trigeminal Collaterals in the Nasal Epithelium and Olfactory Bulb. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 444, 3 (Mar. 2002), 221–226.
[51]
Schneider, R. and Schmidt, C. 1967. Dependency of olfactory localization on non-olfactory cues. Physiology & Behavior. 2, 3 (Jul. 1967), 305–309.
[52]
Spence, C. 2017. Digitizing the chemical senses: Possibilities & pitfalls. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 107, (Nov. 2017), 62–74.
[53]
Stevenson, R.J. 2010. An Initial Evaluation of the Functions of Human Olfaction. Chemical Senses. 35, 1 (Jan. 2010), 3–20.
[54]
Stewart, M.G. 2004. Development and Validation of the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) Scale. Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. 130, 2 (Feb. 2004), 157–163.
[55]
Straschill, M. 1983. Effects of electrical stimulation of the human olfactory mucosa. Applied Neurophysiology. 46, 5–6 (1983), 286–289.
[56]
Suzuki, C. 2014. Affecting tumbler: affecting our flavor perception with thermal feedback. Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (2014), 1–10.
[57]
Takei, Y. 2019. Development of 3D gas source localization using multi-copter with gas sensor array. 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN) (Fukuoka, Japan, May 2019), 1–4.
[58]
Tezuka, M. 2016. Presentation of Various Tactile Sensations Using Micro-Needle Electrotactile Display. PLOS ONE. 11, 2 (Feb. 2016), e0148410.
[59]
Weiss, T. 2016. From Nose to Brain: Un-Sensed Electrical Currents Applied in the Nose Alter Activity in Deep Brain Structures. Cerebral Cortex. 26, 11 (Oct. 2016), 4180–4191.
[60]
Wu, Y. 2020. Humans navigate with stereo olfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117, 27 (Jul. 2020), 16065–16071.

Cited By

View all
  • (2025) MorphingScents : Fabricating Thin, Flexible, and Shape-Changing Odor-Emitting Mechanism for Interactive Olfactory Encounters International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2443239(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
  • (2024)Hapstick-Figure: Investigating the Design of a Haptic Representation of Human Gestures from Theater Performances for Blind and Visually-Impaired PeopleProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36981528:ISS(649-673)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Design of Thermal Earring: A Low-Power Wireless Earring for Longitudinal Temperature MonitoringCompanion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/3675094.3681953(366-370)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Stereo-Smell via Electrical Trigeminal Stimulation
    Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2021
    10862 pages
    ISBN:9781450380966
    DOI:10.1145/3411764
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 07 May 2021

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. Electrical stimulation
    2. intranasal
    3. olfaction
    4. trigeminal

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article
    • Research
    • Refereed limited

    Funding Sources

    • National Science Foundation

    Conference

    CHI '21
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

    Upcoming Conference

    CHI 2025
    ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 26 - May 1, 2025
    Yokohama , Japan

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)182
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)28
    Reflects downloads up to 22 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2025) MorphingScents : Fabricating Thin, Flexible, and Shape-Changing Odor-Emitting Mechanism for Interactive Olfactory Encounters International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2443239(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2025
    • (2024)Hapstick-Figure: Investigating the Design of a Haptic Representation of Human Gestures from Theater Performances for Blind and Visually-Impaired PeopleProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36981528:ISS(649-673)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Design of Thermal Earring: A Low-Power Wireless Earring for Longitudinal Temperature MonitoringCompanion of the 2024 on ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/3675094.3681953(366-370)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Designing Smart Home Technology For Passive Co-Presence Over DistanceProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661508(3389-3406)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Smell Above All: Envisioning Smell-Centred Future WorldsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660699(2530-2544)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024) OdorCarousel : A Design Tool for Customizing Smell-Enhanced Virtual Experiences International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.231481841:4(2089-2104)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2024
    • (2024)Design and implementation of smellot architecture to realize and transmit electrified smellSECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (ICCCN 2022)10.1063/5.0184625(080001)Online publication date: 2024
    • (2024)Representing scentsInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103357192:COnline publication date: 1-Dec-2024
    • (2024)Devices for the electrical stimulation of the olfactory system: a reviewBiosensors and Bioelectronics10.1016/j.bios.2024.117063(117063)Online publication date: Dec-2024
    • (2024)The effects of haptic, visual and olfactory augmentations on food consumed while wearing an extended reality headsetJournal on Multimodal User Interfaces10.1007/s12193-024-00447-8Online publication date: 11-Dec-2024
    • Show More Cited By

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    HTML Format

    View this article in HTML Format.

    HTML Format

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media