The Ministry of Defense in the UK is working on a project that will allow video-game based military training simulations to release realistic smells as an added sensorial dimension. It’s hoped that by adding this extra sense data during training, soldiers will pay attention to the subtle information relayed by scent in the battlefield, and use it to their advantage. Commercial applications are expected to follow.
Mail Online reports:
Professor Bob Stone, research director of the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre (HFIDTC) at Birmingham University, believes the technique could save soldiers’ lives.
‘Let’s say a unit is passing through a village somewhere in the Arab world where there is always the smell of cooking meat,’ explained Professor Stone. ‘On the day in question that smell is not there. That could mean the village has been evacuated because the enemy are using it as a base from which to attack British troops. Smell is the most underrated and underused of our senses.
‘If we rely only on sights and sounds, we are in danger of closing our minds to what is going on around us. And for a soldier, that can mean the difference between life and death.’
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