The oPhone is coming...

Text a smell: 'oPhone' brings aromatic messaging to your iPhone--seriously

A Harvard professor has invented a device that will allow users to send smells via mobile messaging. It's not a hoax.

The "oPhone" by Vapor Communications will allow users to mix and match different scents to create more than
300,000 unique aromas to send via mobile message.

Harvard engineering professor David Edwards invented the device, along with a free app for oPhone users called
"oSnap". oSnap, available on iTunes, lets users take photos, add text, program an accompanying scent, then combine
all three to send what the company calls an "oNote."

The device is designed to sit on a table or desk, and uses small cartridges called oChips ("o" for olfactory) to send
32 "primitive aromas" through the device's two receivers. These oChips are good for hundreds of uses, and can be
replaced, like printer cartriges, when the aroma gets used up.

The oPhone will be available for pre-order for $149 starting Tuesday, June 17 to anyone who donates to the device's
Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The oPhone will cost $199 at the consumer launch, expected next year.

So why would you want to send a smell?

"Scent is the world's natural tweet, because it takes just a few seconds to get a scent," Edwards told Fast Company.
"The notion of people saying, 'I miss you in New York,' by sending a scent is really interesting and powerful. Or imagine
taking a scent selfie and posting it on Facebook."

Edwards recently sent a scent from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City across the Atlantic
Ocean to a colleague in Paris, France.