Indian Patents Digital Smell Device

N E W  D E L H I, Feb. 16 -- An Indian inventor said today he had been given a U.S. patent for a device that would allow advertisements, movies and music to generate scents.

Sandeep Jaidka, 37, told Reuters the small device could be attached to a television, computer or hi-fi system. He said the patent granted last November involved digital signals synchronized with music or movie sequences and could be used to produce smells or weather-linked sensations. "This [invention] is a beautiful combination of digital-coded signals," Jaidka said. He said he needed about 5 million rupees ($107,500) to 10 million rupees to develop a prototype of the device. The Internet site of the U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office said the government patent, numbered 6,152,829 and filed on May 13, 1999, was for a "device and a process." It said "the output of the electronic decoder is connected to an actuating device that releases gas/perfumes or energizes a heating/cooling device to produce the desired effects corresponding to the scene appearing on the screen."

Indian Government Helped Out

Jaidka, who studied political science, said he had been "inventing since childhood" and received a patent in 1997 for a pollution-control device that would trigger oxygen supplies based on sensors. He said his latest patent was secured with help from the Indian government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Research Development Corp. Though the device had not been tested, the process was good enough to get the patent and would be available for licensed production, he said."Basically the concept has been patented. My invention is simple," said Jaidka.