'Creating a Stink - Investigating Olfactory Transport Streams'

如果我们要享受真正沉浸式环境的好处，那么未来的通信网络将需要被设计成能够传输比现在的视觉和听觉更多的感官信息。这里提出的研究旨在探讨我们如何将通信理论与嗅觉技术的最新进展结合起来。这两个完全不同的学科的结合开辟了全新的研究领域，该项目将调查两个关键方面，以推动这一进程。首先，我们将研究如何在传统的通信网络（如互联网）上表征并有效地传输气味（气味），并在接收器上准确地再现它，特别是当它与视频流一起传输时，如未来沉浸式服务所设想的那样。这本质上是“气味传送”，然而，为了实现这一点，我们需要了解我们如何设计能够有效传输这类信息的网络，以及它如何受到网络缺陷（如数据包丢失、延迟和抖动）的影响，即传输气味所需的服务质量是什么？其次，我们将研究如何利用气味技术创造一种全新的通信媒介。为了实现这一目标，我们需要了解如何将数据符号调制到气味载体（羽毛）上，因此可以使用哪种调制方式（导致可以产生数字编码的气味流的设备），控制这种通过空气传输的因素是什么，以及可以实现的典型熵率是多少？我们还将研究如何将其用作安全通信通道，例如，数据（携带气味羽流）仅在特定位置和瞬间（或窗口）一致地接收。这样的通道可用于安全地分发加密密钥。我们亦会探索机会，将该项目的研究成果转化为商业用途；通过知识产权保护，与我们的初创公司和工业合作伙伴合作，以及通过制定旨在展示这些技术的后续提案。正如影响战略所确定的那样，我们预计来自一系列部门和行业的大量兴趣。

If we are to enjoy the benefits of truly immersive environments, then future communicaitons networks will need to be designed to be able to transport more sensory information than the visual and auditory senses they serve today. The research proposed here seeks to investigate how we can combine communications theory with recent advances in olfactory technologies. The coupling of these two disparate disciplines opens up radically new areas of research, and this project will investigate two key aspects that are essential in order to take this forward. Firstly, we will investigate how we can characterise and then efficiently transmit odour (scent) over conventional communications networks such as the Internet, and accurately recreate it at a receiver, particularly when it is transmitted alongside video streams as envisaged for future immersive services. This is essentially 'scent teleportation', however in order to accomplish this we need to understand how can we design networks that can efficiently transport this type of information and how it is affected by network impairments such as packet loss, delay and jitter, i.e. what is the quality of service required to transmit scent? Secondly, we will investigate how we can employ scent technologies to create a completely new communications medium. To achieve this we need to understand how we can modulate data symbols onto scent carriers (plumes), and consequently what types of modulation are available to do this (leading to devices that can produce odour streams that are digitally encoded), what are the factors governing this type of transmission though the air, and what are the typical entropy rates that can be achieved? We will also investigate how we can employ this as a secure communications channel, e.g. whereby the data (carried over a scent plume) is only coherently received at a specific location and instant (or window) of time. Such channels may be used to securely distribute encryption keys. We will also explore opportunities to commercial exploit the research developed in this project; through IP protection, collaboration with our start-up companies and Industrial partner, and through the development of a follow-on proposal designed to demonstrate the technologies. We anticipate substantial interest from a range of sectors and industries, as identified in the impact strategy.