New social-media gadget lets you smell your tweets

Eric Pfeiffer
·Reporter

How's your social-media connection smelling today?

Should anyone think to ask, you can now find an answer to this crucial question courtesy of a company called Mint Foundry . It has developed a small portable device called Olly that turns Internet notifications, including your Twitter feed and related pings, into smells.

You can watch a video of Olly in action here, courtesy of Vimeo:

The Smell Of Success - Prototype Demo

For the time being, you can actually create your very own Olly, provided you have the technical knowledge and correct hardware:

It can be stacked, have its looks changed around and all the parts, code and instructions are open and customizable. Currently, Olly can be created with a 3D printer but its developers, design lab Mint Foundry are looking to manufacture them for a wider audience.

So how does it work, exactly? The customizable "web connected smelly robot" is assigned to a computer that sends a signal to Olly to release various odors. Technically, it's not much more complex than having an USB-enabled Glade Plug-Ins hooked up to your laptop.

And from here, it seems just a matter of time until a friend request from your grandmother can trigger the eerily familiar scent of Werther's Originals?

[Via Laughing Squid]