Saturday, August 28, 2010

Two of Five - Multimedia..

I have been thinking from quite some time regarding REAL multimedia system. We all know we have five sense of organs. Namely Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue and Skin. We have five ways of sensing through these organs- Sight, Sound, Odor, Taste and Touch. We are really thankful to God that we have got ability to feel these senses.

We think human being is very intelligent. Yes we are, but we have scored only 2 out of 5 with respect these senses. I think REAL multimedia is that system, which can have all five senses :) As of now, we have conquered only Sight and Sound. Till now we have devices only for audio and video capabilities. Other 3 senses yet to be conquered.

Assume of a website which describes preparing a Dish. As of now people can only see how the dish looks like. If we had devices which can also produce aroma, taste and touch senses, we could have effectively presented how to prepare the dish, and how it tastes and smells.

Assume of online catalog for buying a cloth. As of now, you can only see its picture. If we had a device that give a sense of touch. You could have sensed the material of the cloth before buying the same. Online shopping becomes much more effective.

Assume of an album of your friend in a party. As of now your friend can only share you the photos and videos. If we had devices which can sense and re-produce the odor, you can also feel how your friend smelled, what perfume she used etc :)

Let's see what do I mean by conquering senses. Life cycle of senses are Sensors, Converters, Storage, Transport and Reproduce.
  1. Sensors: We have devices like Still and Video Cameras to capture Sight. We have magnetic tape recorder and voice sensors to capture sound. We do not have devices to sense and capture Odor, Touch and Taste.

  2. Converters : Once sensed, we need devices which can convert feeling of senses into a form which can be stored. For example, light sensed by a digital sensor, converts it into electronic form which can be then stored on a memory card. As of now we do not have converters which can convert Odor, Touch and Taste into storable format.

  3. Storage : We have memory sticks, Tape drives and secondary hard drives. These devices should be common for all multimedia forms, including odor, touch and taste

  4. Transport: We have wired and wire less transport mechanisms. Again, these should not be different than what we already have for odor, touch and taste.

  5. Reproduce: As of now we have CRTs, LCD displays and projectors for re-producing light data. We have DVD players, Cassette players, MP3 players and grama phone kind of devices which can re-produce Audio data. It is a huge challenge as of now to produce a feel of Odor, Touch and Taste.
We have a wide range of area where our scientists need to put there brains and research on sensors, converter and re-producers of Odor, Taste and Touch.

Do I make some "SENSE" ?

2 comments:

Karthik CS said...

Wow! Japanese Scientists have already done odor recorder..:)

Karthik CS said...

Wow! Japanese Scientists have already done odor recorder..:)

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=APAB&p_theme=apab&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=odor%20recorder&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22odor%20recorder%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no