Humans take in information from all of our senses. Though the makers of entertainment, including virtual reality (VR) concentrate on sight and sound, and to a certain extent, touch, smell is largely left out of the equation. Some companies have been brave enough to tackle this issue, however, and one of them has teamed up with VR headset maker Pimax to make VR even more immersive.
Pimax shot to the attention of the VR industry with its wildly successful Kickstarter campaign for an 8K headset. Pimax has now announced a partnership with Japan’s Vaqso to bring a scent emitter module to the Pimax 8K headset.
The Vaqso scent module uses several plastic cartridges which are mounted just above the nostrils, using a fan to gently blow the scent towards your nose in sync to the game you are playing. The device has been demonstrated at several technology and videogaming events, including the Tokyo Game Show where it was synchronised with SquareEnix titles like Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur VR.
The plastic cartridge modules can be changed out according to the needs to the videogame in question, with a multitude of available scents including ‘fish’, ‘ramen’, ‘burnt’ and ‘grassland’. Each cartridge is said to provide up to a month’s worth of scene. The device has a two-hour rechargeable battery, which can be charged using a micro USB cable.
Pimax have been trying to work with the Kickstarter community to make sure that all the goals the company set for itself were met and that the requirements of fans were provided for. In April of this year, Pimax announced that there would be two different variants of its hand-held controllers, so customers could choose their preference between touch pad and thumb stick.
Pimax also indicated to its customer base and community that a scent module would be coming, but details were not available at the time. The involvement of Vaqso will have answered some questions for Pimax fans.
The Pimax 8K headset is still undergoing testing, and it is unknown when the device will be commercially available, but VRFocus will be sure to provide all the latest news.