PHOTO: NTT

Not content to serve only its customers’ eyes and ears, Japan’s NTT Communications, of Tokyo, has just finished testing an Internet-connected odor-delivery system to be used by retailers and restaurants to attract customers. In the test, a device [right] emitted cocktails of fragrances mixed in the machine according to recipes delivered over the Internet. The scents were intended to pull passersby into a pub in an underground mall in Tokyo. What drives Japanese mall-goers to drink? NTT’s researchers are betting that for men, at least, it’s a peculiar lime aroma—used in combination with a flat-panel display showing frolicking bikini-clad women.

More at http://spectrum.ieee.org/jan08/smelltoo