In the past 10 years the retail and leisure industries have discovered the power of smell to evoke emotion, create an experience or trigger a purchasing decision.

For example, have you ever walked into a travel shop to book a holiday to the sun and been pleasantly surprised by the soft scent of coconut oil or the fruity infusion of pina colada to induce your holiday spirit? If you did not even realise, then you were seduced by scent.

Many of these scents have been brought to you by Lancashire-based company Dale Air, who has for over 25 years re-created the delicious smells of melted chocolate, sizzling roast chicken, coffee, home-baking and sun-cream to the more pungent stenches of dragon’s breath, flatulence, an Egyptian Mummy and New York tenement housing from era’s gone by.

Dale Air is well-known worldwide for its provision of themed aromas to a wide and impressive portfolio of clients (see Note to Editor) from museums and public displays/attractions, to hotels, zoos and retailers.

Says Dale Air’s managing director, Frank Knight, “Our sense of smell is unbelievably powerful, it triggers emotions and captures our imagination. More and more over the last decade Dale Air has experienced a growing interest from such a wide range of clients seeking some bizarre smells! The world of scent is a fascinating business; only yesterday Jaguar urine arrived at our studio – another scent to be replicated!”

Most recently, family-run Dale Air was tracked down by the world’s fourth largest telecommunication’s giant, France Telecom R&D, to develop a prototype model to emit aromas using the company’s especially created software.

France Telecom R&D’s software, called exhalia®, is programmed to signal to Dale Air’s speaker-sized machine – the Vortex Active - exactly what and when to emit one of the specific aromas available on the Dale Air machine in synchronization with the multimedia support (picture, speech, movie, TV program, etc). exhalia® and the aroma technology can be used across all digital platforms, for example on a reel of film, CD, movie. exhalia® software can also diffuse smells through the internet or TV channels.

Therefore, if a museum were to show a reel of film that depicted a time from years gone by, this aroma technology could be used to trigger a variety of smells at appropriate moments throughout the film. For example, say the film depicted the time of the black plague, smells such as a river stench or the smell of rats or decomposing bodies could be used. This would evoke a sense of smell that would ultimately create the desperate feeling from that era.

“We’re so excited to have been approached by France Telecom R&D. We’re a small family-run business and therefore a development project of this size is very significant for us. I believe that it’ll take the omission of aromas to a new level and I completely envisage that it will be a great success. We are so excited to be involved,” continues Knight.

Dale Air’s prototype model has been purposefully developed as a small box to enable it to be used discreetly so that the source of the scent’s omission is not dispelled widely to fill a complete space or room, instead it can be used in a personal way. The prototype proved successful in testing and Dale Air, with the collaboration of France Telecom R&D, has developed the production model, which is due for completion in March 2004 and will be available for purchase in April/May. France Telecom R&D also works with other companies across the world to push the same concept.

Knight comments on the aroma industry, “A huge growth area for us as a company has been the point-of-sale market within the retail sector. If you think about food and drink products today, unless the in-store environment has a deli section, it is very difficult for a consumer to make a purchase decision based upon smell as so many products are vacuum packed. We are now finding that retailers are looking for the smell of fresh baked bread, roasted coffee, fruity wine, chocolate and coconut oil to place in different parts within the in-store environment and this is where France Telecom R&D’s software and our technology will be of great benefit as it is discreet, sophisticated and subtle - well suited for individual perception of smells.”

The prototype for the Vortex Active will be on view at the Black Museum in Dudley, West Midlands as from the 15th January 2004 provisionally for two months.