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Scent By A Wireless Web

This paper explores Scentsory Design®, responsive clothing that goes beyond current microencapsulated techniques, through the inclusion of wireless scent delivery systems that sense and responds to psychological and environmental changes in order to enhance wellbeing , avoid skin allergies and prevent insect-borne diseases.

In this paper the development of a collection of responsive jewellery is described that dispenses fragrances, triggered by sensors that react to an individual's body state (e.g. temperature and heart rate) and the environment (e.g. sound). The next stage of the project creates an "emotional fashion" collection. The paper will conclude by proposing fabric research developed in responsive clothes that offer social and therapeutic value in a desirable context.

Fashion is about displaying personal identity information. Scentsory Design ® is about creating a scent "bubble" around the wearer, enhancing the visual message of fashion with medical, sensory and psychological 'wellbeing'. This paper will discuss the advantages of clothes as a communication tool whereby messages are 'scent by a wireless web' , whilst also offering a 'scentient screen' (a scent bubble) for military, health and fashion applications, through the distribution of scent using 'lab-on-a-chip' technology i.e:

•  spraying scent directly on to the skin to contribute towards psychological wellbeing

According to the World Health Organisation: "in 2020 depression will be the illness of the age, second to heart disease". Doctors will widely prescribe antidepressants to de-stress the 'over-worked' culture, which in turn cause side effects.

We are entering a new age of perfumery that will have a radical impact on mental health. Scent has the power to evoke emotions because the olfactory sense impacts directly with the limbic system in the brain (our emotional centre). Recent research has demonstrated how olfactory substances are capable of increasing an individual's wellbeing through changes in electrical brain activity 1 . Scent can also reduce unpleasant side effects from pharmaceutical drugs such as headaches, sweating and agitation.

•  pulsing scent through fabric surfaces and away from the body

Studies at the American Academy of Dermatology suggest that 10% of the population experience a reaction to cosmetics containing alcohol applied directly on to the skin. This research endeavours to replace alcohol as a new medium for the fragrance industry to sell perfume

•  spraying scent away from the body to create an active mobile barrier

'The Lancet' journal predicts that by 2010 half the world's population (nearly 3.5 billion people) will be living in areas where malaria is transmitted, so a wearable scent 'screen' that repels mosquitoes could significantly reduce malaria .

1 PsychoNeuroImmunology Research at the Monell Chemical Senses Center Philadelphia .

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