On Characterizing Olfactory Displays

One challenge in the research and development of olfactory displays (OD) relates to measurable quantification of the output of the OD. Compared to research with visual, auditory, and even haptic stimulations, it is more difficult to measure, verify, and report the characteristics of olfactory stimuli. This type of characterization would be important in developing, for example, precisely controllable olfactory display technology for assessing the functioning of the sense of smell. In this position paper, we introduce our method to characterize the output of an olfactory display and discuss its applicability to human-computer interaction research involving odor presentation.