Smell Ya Later: Smell-o-vision Comes to Japanese Smartphones

If you ask us, it just makes scents.

How many times have you been craving the sweet, succulent taste of freshly cooked yakiniku, but had no way to sate your appetite? Well, until 3D printers catch up to The Matrix, you’ll have to settle for the next best thing: smelling it. One Japanese company, Scentee, has unveiled their Hana Yakiniku, or “Nose Grilled Meat”, system that promises to offer up the smell of hot off the grill yakinku through special scent cartridges that you plug into your smartphone and a proprietary app. Welcome to the future of lunch.

Set to go on sale on November 15, Scentee’s Hana Yakiniku kit retails for $35.57 (3,480 yen) and comes with a free smartphone app. Replacement cartridges will run you a cool 1,000 yen ($10.22), which is a massive savings compared to what the average yakiniku dinner would cost you. Are you a vegetarian? Or maybe you just don’t want the smell of meat from your pocket attracting hungry dogs? Scentee makes a variety of other scented cartridges for their scent-spewing app including apple, corn soup and coffee. At last, you can wield the power of corn soup without any of the unsightly cleanup!

Sounds complicated? It isn’t. Scentee breaks down the process into four easy steps: 1) choose a menu item – short ribs, beef tongue or buttered potato; 2) insert the Scentee cartridge; 3) smell the sweet scents of your chosen menu item; and 4) eat rice with the scent of grilled meat. Sounds easy enough, right? Scentee envisions their app as being perfect for college students, women watching their weight and couples looking to save some money instead of  going out for expensive meals. Granted, you may look a little silly at dinnertime, but sometimes it pays off to follow your nose.

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