A team of researchers from Universities in Hong Kong and China have designed an interesting way to incorporate smell into virtual reality. Unlike existing solutions which usually contain liquids which require regular refilling, this design uses parrafin infused with different scents, and heats them up with a mini electric coil. The more heat applied, the stronger the scent.

They’ve experimented with two versions of this, one as a simple band-aid type design which goes on the top lip, and a more complex mask that emits up to nine scents, which when combined can create roughly 30 separate smells.

Though it’s pretty rough around the edges, it certainly is an interesting concept, and I bet it could be reduced further in size.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37678-4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhBmjQeJ7wU