FeelReal, the company developing smell-o-vision virtual reality (VR) headset masks, are going official with their Kickstarter beginning on April 9th at 11 AM EST. Day-one backers are promised a discounted price from the MSRP of $300, which includes the Mask and 10 basic scents for $200 according to Road To VR. Designed to fit Oculus Rift, PSVR, Oculus Go, and Gear VR, Feelreal aims to provide what they call a “scent generator” to imitate the olfactory senses of virtual environments.
“We’ve chosen distinct scents that accurately simulate the atmosphere of games and movies. FeeRreal aromas are safe to inhale and are similar to those used in the food industry,” the company claims on their website.
Provided that their Kickstarter campaign is successful, the company is developing a storefront with 255 different scents for users to mix as they wish. All of the scents were designed by Kiev-based perfumer, olfactologist, and perfume critic Bogdan Zubchenko. The FeelReal units themselves use haptics to deliver smells to users, such as an ultrasonic ionizing system for water mist, micro-heaters for heat sensation, micro-coolers for wind, and haptic motors for vibration. The units come in white, gray, and black, attach to VR headsets via magnetic mounts, and promise four hours of battery life.
FeelReal advertises out of the box support for games like Skyrim VR and Beat Saber and movies like Ready Player One, with each aroma set costing $49.99. The company also offers an SDK and video editor so that developers can create their own VR smell-o-vision experiences. While there’s no word on when the rewards for the Kickstarter are due to arrive, early adopters can sign up for updates on the company’s website, and can check back at their Kickstarter profile for the official launch.
FealReal admittedly has a prohibitive cost of entry to mass consumers, with each mask starting at $299.99 in addition to the cost of the base headset and computing power to power those headsets. Though the implementation of an add-on like FeelReal is definitely odd, it could prove to serve a niche within the VR community – it’s for the people who want to go a step further and want even further immersion in their VR experiences. Whether that sense passes on to the rest of us, though, will remain to be seen.
