Effect of smell presentation on individuals with regard to eye catching and memory

If a person's eyes are more strongly attracted to target objects by matching a smell to an important scene of a movie or a commercial image, the value of the image content will rise. In this paper, we attempt to describe an image system that can also present smells, and the reason for the improvement, as indicated by gaze point analysis, in the presence of smell that is matched to an image. The relationship between the eye‐catching ability and the position of the object of viewing was examined using images with a scene in which someone eats three kinds of fruits. These objects were gazed at for a long time on release of their scents. When the smell was not released, the gaze moved actively in an attempt to receive a lot of information from the entire screen. On the other hand, when the smell was inserted, the subjects became interested in the object and there was a tendency for their gaze to stay within the narrow area surrounding the image. We also investigated the effect on the memory of attaching smells to the flowers in a virtual flower shop by using an immersive virtual reality system (HoloStage™). Memorization was easier than with the scentless case. It appears that viewers obtain information actively by reacting to smell. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(3): 9–19, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10319