Messages Will Be Scent

We know how an e-mail looks, but how does it smell? the answer may be coming from U.K. broadband provider Telewest, which is testing “ScentMail.” The technology is provided by the Savannah, Georgia-based company Trisenx, which has released a beta version of the Scent Dome, a kind of olfactory printer attached to your PC that can reproduce a given smell before your very nose. The Scent Dome, set to retail at $269, uses up to 20 base aromas — including lavender and coffee. Advertisers are sure to be on the scent, with a whiff of the sea or suntan oil to help sell you holidays. But in the end, most Web users can already smell spam a mile away.