Speaker Series

No. 1: Making Scent-tech together

Our first speaker series event.

• Chach Sikes (Aroma Discord organizer), introduces the Aroma Discord group. We do a community building activity with the Zoom guests.
• Priscilla Koukoui talks about creating 4d multisensorial VR experiences.
• The first ever live “scent-cast” event at AromaJoin’s digital scent hackathon, Hackaroma.
• Jas Brooks speaks about our Scent Sensing Reading Group, where we are learning the basics of digital e-noses and doing basic Arduino projects.

Presentations

Multisensorial Realities

PRISCILLA KOUKOUI OviSquare | LinkedIn
Creative examples of the use of olfaction in immersive experiences, in AR and VR

Bio: Emerging Tech adventurer and XR Creator, Priscilla Koukoui is the Founder of OviSquare.com, a company shaping the Future of XR (VR/AR) Business mainly for AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction), and re-imagining Entertainment by crafting meaningful multisensory XR stories.
She leads multi-functional teams through complex digital transformation and the creation of innovative solutions delighting customers.
Location: Sydney, AU

Behind the Scenes of Hackaroma,
the digital scent hackathon.

CHU BAO TRUNG AromaJoin | LinkedIn
We here at Aromajoin organized Hackaroma, an online hackathon where participants had a chance to develop prototypes with Aroma Shooters triggered through the Internet.

Bio: This talk is a summary of insights about the event from the perspective of an organizer.
Trung (pronounced “Choon”) is from Vietnam and currently the Software Engineering Manager of the Japan-based digital scent startup Aromajoin.
Location: Tokyo

Scent Sensing: Aroma Discord Reading Group

JAS BROOKS (University of Chicago)
Scent Sensing is a text channel and reading group in the Aroma Discord, devoted to learning and discussing how people are trying to make computers smell and how to apply this technology. The talk will cover the reading group’s structure and future goals.

Bio: Jas Brooks is a PhD student at the University of Chicago. Their research focuses on the engineering interactive devices that directly modulate our chemical senses (smell & taste).

Location: New Mexico | Chicago

About the event

Moderator: Chach Sikes, Redbeak Studio | LinkedIn
Event Date: September 23, 2020
Hosted on Zoom at 12:00 a.m. GMT
Participants: About 30

Links and References

• Open Sourcing Smell Culture
• Scent Tech Database
• Hackaroma
• Quarter Moon Nights - Chach’s Multisensory Art Club, with monthly prompts every new moon.

Follow ups

September 30, 2020

• This was our first talk, which meant Chach needed to set up and configure EventBrite, a YouTube channel, a mailing list, and the process for onboarding new presenters & publishing the video.
• After our post-talk conversation, we started a new thread on our Discord server to begin to discuss the concept of olfactory privacy and ethics.
• Created a new website (this website), to post more information about our talks for those who cannot attend.
• We are creating an informational page about Discord (to explain how to use it).
• If you are doing a VR project and would be interested to add a survey to understand how scent effects the experience, please contact Dr. Jacki Morie (one of our super hero mentors Check out her Wikipedia page! LinkedIn)
• Some folks liked the Zoom activity & are interested in creating an opt-in database so we can contact each other.
• Zoom captions did not work as expected, we need to figure out captions for next time.
• We want to build a great community that excels at international collaboration & working across disciplines without jargon or feeling intimidated (for perfumers, technologists, artists, students and community groups). This will take some time.

Sign up to present, get on our mailing list, and get an invitation to the Discord server.
We are volunteer run, and still setting up basic infrastructure for meetings and communications.

Credits

The Zoom background is a mash up created by Chacha Sikes, made with icons from the Noun Project:
smell by Vadim Solomakhin from the Noun Project
smell flower by corpus delicti from the Noun Project
smell wood by corpus delicti from the Noun Project
smell sea by corpus delicti from the Noun Project
document test tube by Vectorstall from the Noun Project
Rose by Econceptive from the Noun Project
lemon by Jake Park from the Noun Project
Beaver by Smalllike from the Noun Project
aroma by Astoe Design from the Noun Project
aroma by Eucalyp from the Noun Project
Strawberry by dDara from the Noun Project
Lily of the Valley by dDara from the Noun Project
wifi by Mello from the Noun Project
Cloud Upload by ProSymbols from the Noun Project
Megaphone by ProSymbols from the Noun Project
Telephone by ProSymbols from the Noun Project

Last updated: September 30, 2020 | Github

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