Scent Rhythm Watch Spritzes Perfume to Tell the Time
Fragrance is powerfully connected to our memories of certain people, places and times in our lives – and this unusual concept watch takes advantage of that fact in order to tell the time of day. The Scent Rhythm Watch by Aisen Caro Chacin releases a particular scent every six hours, mapping the fragrances to the body’s circadian rhythms.
Each scent corresponds to a particular state: waking up, being active, relaxing and sleeping. The idea is that our bodies will remember what each scent ‘means,’ and begin to go into the correct state as soon as it’s released.
The watch features four glass bulbs, each containing one milliliter of a unique fragrance. Theoretically, those bulbs could be filled with any fragrances the wearer likes, but the designer has chosen scents from Demeter that correspond quite fittingly to each period of the day: Espresso for the morning, Paper/Tarnish for the daytime, Tobacco for the evening and Chamomile for night.
The watch runs on a rechargeable LiPo battery and uses an Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller board to time the release of the fragrance.
More from the designer
“Scent Rhythm is timekeeping device that maps relational olfactory sequences to the body’s circadian cycle. The sense of smell is a chemoreceptor, which means that these sensors can detect chemicals. The sense of time, chronoception, is not based on the function of a specific organ, but rather the result of the interaction of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia. This device attempts to keep a chemical watch on the circadian rhythm, by administering fragrance+supplement concoctions associated with the daily activity of the moment to promote the production of certain neurotransmitters, such as chamomile+melatonin during sleep, espresso+caffeine during the awaken state.”
About Aisen Caro Chacin
“Born in Boston, MA, Aisen Caro Chacin is a regenerating composition of cells that produce a woman, a Venezuelan, a Spaniard, an U.S. American, and an animal whose patterns of migration are not based on seasons, but rather chance, chaos, and opportunity. Her curiosity led her to research the intersecting fields of art, science, and technology driven by conceptual forms of inquiry. . Her work has exhibited in at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference, The New York Hall of Science, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Maker Faire, and Dorkbot.”