Scented cybercartography: exploring possibilities

Search Swinburne Research Bank

Home

List of Titles

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/196386

Check Swinburne's subscriptions for full text availability

Title: Scented cybercartography: exploring possibilities
Author(s): Lauriault, Tracey P.; Lindgaard, Gitte
Abstract: Olfactory cartography is part of the emerging discipline of cybercartography (Taylor 2003), a transdisciplinary endeavour that investigates, among other things, the integration of multimedia, multi-sensory, and multimodal data into digital atlases and maps. The physiology and psychology of the olfactory system, its special characteristics, its influence on performance and memory, and some of the issues that make the study of olfaction difficult are addressed. Characterizing, classifying, and labelling scents is problematic, and it is recommended that methods from other communities of practice be adopted and adapted by cartographers. Literature from a wide range of disciplines, including olfactory geography, is reviewed, and a number of innovative ideas are provided. In addition, olfactory applications in different areas such as marketing, art installations, film, and virtual environments are described, as are a range of currently available olfactory diffusion devices. These, however, have not been explored in a cartographic context, nor have they undergone usability testing. We conclude that it is too early to provide cartographic guidelines and methods but that scented applications, odour diffusion technologies, and olfactory data collection methods provide knowledge that can be applied toward developing a scented cartography.
Publication type: Journal article
Source: Cartographica, Vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 73-91
Publication year: 2006
Keyword(s): Cybercartography; Geography; Human perception; Olfaction; Scent
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISSN: 0317-7173
Peer reviewed