IT COULD be the next big thing in in-store marketing – or a gross invasion of nasal privacy. As customers walk round a store, they could be tracked by a device that bombards them with an enticing aroma aimed directly at their nose. The device, called an air cannon, is so accurate that it can target a single individual, while leaving the person next to them unaffected.
The air cannon was developed by Yasuyuki Yanagi and his colleagues at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, as a technique for directing evocative smells to people exploring virtual-reality environments. The driver…
