However, there was talk of saving 3D fare by adding further sensory doodads to the theater experience. What if the moviegoer could smell and feel events along with the screen action? Wouldn’t that stir audiences and bring in the crowds? Engineers went to work designing an enhanced sensory environment.

They envisioned adding controlled motion and vibration to theater seats so you could feel the rumble and body wrenching a driver endures during cars chase scenes. Imagine the electricity needed to power these seats during love scenes or workouts at a health club. It’s mind boggling to think of all the special motion effects that would have to be coordinated while movie cameras and sound equipment captured visual and audio scenes.

Another Hollywood idea was to release odors in the theater to add to the sensate experience. Imagine the smell of a late summer storm in “Gone With the Wind” or the fragrance of tropical Plumeria wafting from a scene in “South Pacific”. The mind boggles at the creative opportunities. The ideas never came to commercial fruition, although my guess is that many ended up being produced for Disney theme parks.

Today, once more we hear the drumbeats about 3D and enhanced technology. Entrepreneurs are eyeing the World Wide Web as an environment anxious and waiting for touchy, smelly and visually overwhelming technology. They hope that you and I will respond with our cash once they are available.

Three devices presently are in design or pre-production awaiting marketing hype and buzz to convince you that you can’t live without them. The most technologically interesting is a 360-degree “fisheye” lens and camera. Originally designed for a NASA robotics project, two 180-degree view fisheye lenses are placed back-to-back. The images produced by the lenses can be scanned producing 3D like pictures. A new movie titled “Driven” uses the technology to show scenes of auto racing from the driver’s vantage point. The lenses are also shortly due to show up in football player’s helmets giving fans an unprecedented “heads up” televised view.

Not far behind is the latest in smell or scent technology. A hardware packet of basic scents is incorporated in a cartridge similar to those used in an inkjet printer. By combining basic scents the desired smell can be achieved under computer control. One company is digitizing a large array of smells. Some initial favorites are stale whiskey, pizza, ocean and rain. As one of the developers noted recently, “smell is the most powerful sense in linking emotion and memory”. I shudder to think what creative and misguided computer nerds can make of this technology. E-mails may actually smell like Spam … or whatever.

Last on my list are touchy feely devices. Perhaps you have not felt the need to rush out and buy a new mouse for your computer recently. But, right now you can wander over to your favorite computer store or web site and buy one that is much more mouse like than your plain old mouse. This one has internal vibrators that whir and buzz as you move the cursor across a web page. You will feel different sensations as you move the cursor across coded web page links, menus, scroll bars, etc. That “feely” mouse could be help for those with disabilities or poor eye hand coordination.

Code embedded in the web page would allow users to feel differences as they use the mouse to move across pictures and perhaps differentiate the feel between thick and thin, or smooth and rough surfaces. Many developers are working on giving the mouse an extended capability to communicate between the computer and the user. The hand is a very perceptive sensory organ and is able to convey a lot of information to the brain.

There you have it. The latest information and rumors from the backrooms and laboratories of firms trying to win the battle for your money. If any of you are part of development teams working with sensory devices I would love to hear about your work Send me an email, irish@pacificnet.net