Hasegawa Keisuke, Qiu Liwei, Shinoda Hiroyuki
IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph. 2018 Jan 17. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2018.2794118.
We propose a system that controls the spatial distribution of odors in an environment by generating electronically steerable ultrasound-driven narrow air flows. The proposed system is designed not only to remotely present a preset fragrance to a user, but also to provide applications that would be conventionally inconceivable, such as: 1) fetching the odor of a generic object placed at a location remote from the user and guiding it to his or her nostrils, or 2) nullifying the odor of an object near a user by carrying it away before it reaches his or her nostrils (Fig. 1). These are all accomplished with an ultrasound-driven air stream serving as an airborne carrier of fragrant substances. The flow originates from a point in midair located away from the ultrasound source and travels while accelerating and maintaining its narrow cross-sectional area. These properties differentiate the flow from conventional jet- or fan-driven flows and contribute to achieving a midair flow. In our system, we employed a phased array of ultrasound transducers so that the traveling direction of the flow could be electronically and instantaneously controlled. In this paper, we describe the physical principle of odor control, the system construction, and experiments conducted to evaluate remote fragrance presentation and fragrance tracking.
我们提出了一种系统，该系统通过产生电子可控的超声驱动窄气流来控制环境中气味的空间分布。所提出的系统不仅旨在向用户远程呈现预设的香味，还旨在提供一些传统上难以想象的应用，例如：1）获取放置在远离用户位置的普通物体的气味并将其引导至用户的鼻孔，或者2）在物体靠近用户时，在其气味到达用户鼻孔之前将其带走从而消除该物体的气味（图1）。这些都是通过作为香料物质空气传播载体的超声驱动气流来实现的。气流源自远离超声源的空中一点，并在加速并保持其狭窄横截面积的同时流动。这些特性使该气流有别于传统的喷气式或风扇驱动气流，并有助于实现空中气流。在我们的系统中，我们采用了超声换能器相控阵，以便气流的行进方向能够被电子方式即时控制。在本文中，我们描述了气味控制的物理原理、系统构造以及为评估远程香味呈现和香味追踪而进行的实验。
