Fragrance presentation methods that provide only a function without the perception of fragrance

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19779
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 61:Human informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: hashimoto yuki 筑波大学, システム情報系, 准教授 (10601883)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 川崎 真弘 筑波大学, システム情報系, 准教授 (40513370)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 香り / 知覚閾値 / 生理的指標

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research period, we first designed and implemented a flavouring agent that can control the time of flavouring injection in milliseconds, with the aim of presenting fragrances below the perceptual threshold for the time axis. As a result, a highly accurate and responsive fragrance presenter that can adjust the injection volume per ms with μg-level accuracy was implemented. Next, it was verified whether there exists a fragrance presentation time during which fragrance effects occur despite the fact that fragrance is not perceived. The results suggest that there are conditions in which changes in physiological indices can be observed, but not perceived, at presentation times of up to 1000 ms. These results indicate the feasibility of an olfactory presentation method that can provide users with only the functional aspects of a fragrance.

Free Research Field

バーチャルリアリティ，インタラクティブ技術

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

短時間での香料提示によって，知覚させずに香りの効果を付与するという手法を，世界で初めて提案し，その実現可能性を示唆することができた．香りは日常生活の中で常に存在し，我々の心身に様々な効果を与えることができる．しかしながら，香気の嗜好は人によって大きく異なり，空間に拡散しやすい香りの利用状況は限られてきた．本研究成果である少量，短時間の香り提示は，空間に香りが拡散することを抑え，同一空間に多数の人がいる場合でも個別に香りの効果を提示可能にする．本研究によって香りの利便性・汎用性が劇的に向上することから，ヘルスケアやトレーニングなど幅広い分野の発展に大きく貢献することが期待できる．