China’s national VR plan includes ‘Odor Simulation’

Internet of Smell

Sounds interesting

Get ready as China Government plans to promote research on ‘odor simulation’ in its national virtual reality plan. The latest strategy by the Chinese government suggests that Beijing has decided that the time for the Internet of Smell has arrived.

The plan includes the shipping of around 25 million devices per year by 2025. Furthermore, ten VR parks, 20 different situations for VR, and about 100 integrated application pioneer cases are also part of the strategy. Furthermore, the plan targets several areas of technology. Some of them are discussed in brief in this news story.

Immersive VR

The plan promotes broad research considering immersive VR technologies. Immersive VR technologies include:

• immersive sound field
• full-body motion capture
• gesture tracking
• eye tracking
• expression tracking
• high-precision environmental understanding
• 3D reconstruction technology
• odor simulation
• virtual movement
• touch

Using the resources at the network edge as well as rendering the 5G content is part of the research program.

A brain-computer interface

Considering the direction of situationalization, intelligence, and naturalization, sensory interaction is under development. This idea will be promoted as a brain-computer interface.

Upgraded smartphones

In the recent plan considering VR, China plans to upgrade smartphones so they work as VR displays. It involves 8K displays, miniaturized 4K displays, as well as 60-frames-per-second refresh rates. Seems like the era of Google’s Cardboard VR viewer is going to end.

An actual metaverse

An open VR platform that enables collaboration and simulation among multiple users is also part of the recent strategy. This new concept appears as an actual metaverse compared to the Zuckerbergian idea of VR apps that are based on Meta-platform.

Well, all such technologies need to develop with special attention to tourism, sports, arts, and other related industries. The current strategic plan for VR requires plenty of technology. For sure China is ahead of other nations when it marched with the plan of Internet of Smell. It is now to be seen how the world responds to nose-related tech.