Aside from open restaurant doors or the seductive aromas emanating from street food vendors, the sense of smell has been tough to pin down in the world of advertising.

SensaBubble is a chrono-sensory, mid-air display system that could change this. Able to create bubbles of specific size and frequency, this technology can also make bubbles that can be filled with a clear, scented fog or display projected images. Impressively, the technology can even track the journey of the bubble itself.

The multi-faceted, interactive nature of SensaBubble means that Professor Sriram Subramanian, who leads the project at the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, is hesitant to place limits on the bubble-based technology's potential. According to Subramanian, SensaBubble's unobtrusive nature lends itself well to educational games and interactive museum displays. Unlike some inventions where modernity proves to be a distraction, SensaBubble seems to be adding a new, technological twist on an object of childhood wonder.

Other technologies exploring the neglected sense include Ophone, where smell was incorporated as a communications device, and Scent Rhythm, which introduced the idea of telling the time by using a scent cycle.