《经济学人》双语：有一种科技能嗅到虚拟现实世界的玫瑰花香 ？

原文标题：
Smell-O-Vision2.0
Bringing scents to the metaverse
VR enthusiasts turn their attentions to an evocative, but neglected, sense
嗅觉视觉2.0
将气味带入元宇宙
VR爱好者们将注意力转向了一个引起共鸣但被忽视的感官

How to bring scents to the metaverse
如何将气味带入虚拟世界？

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IT WAS one of those many inventions that never quite took off.

它是众多从未真正腾飞的发明之一。

In 1960, audiences watching the film “Scent of Mystery” got to experience the wonders of “Smell-O-Vision”.

1960年，看《神秘的气味》电影的观众体验到了 "嗅觉视觉 "的神奇。

Mounted under the cinema seats, the system pumped out 30 different scents—from salty ocean breezes to whiffs of wine—at crucial moments in the plot. The system had its quirks.

该系统安装在电影院的座位下方，在关键剧情处散发出30种不同的气味--从海风的咸咸味道到缕缕葡萄酒香。该系统有独特之处。

Those in the balcony complained that the smells reached them too late. Others found the scents to be too faint, or else irritatingly persistent.

但楼座上的观众抱怨说气味传到他们身边太晚。其他观众要么觉得这些气味太微弱，要么觉得气味太浓太久。

More novel than effective, Smell-O-Vision never really took root in Hollywood.

嗅觉视觉效果平平，只是形式新颖，因此从未在好莱坞真正扎根。

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These days the cutting-edge of entertainment is video games and virtual reality, not films.Several groups are trying to bring scents to virtual worlds.

如今最前沿的娱乐是视频游戏和虚拟现实，而不是电影。一些团队正努力将气味带入虚拟世界。

In one paper published this week in Nature Communications, Xinge Yu at City University of Hong Kong and Yuhang Li at Beihang University describe two wearable “olfaction interfaces”.

本周发表在《自然通讯》上的一篇论文中，香港城市大学的于欣格和北京航空航天大学的李宇航描述了两种可穿戴的“嗅觉接口”。

The first is the size of a plaster, and is affixed to the skin, like a fake moustache, under the user’s nose. The second, more capable version is a flexible face mask.
第一种是石膏大小，像假胡子一样贴在用户鼻子下方的皮肤上。第二种是能力更强的灵活面罩。

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Both rely on heating tiny tiles of paraffin wax that have been impregnated with various liquid perfumes.

两者都依赖于加热浸有各种液体香水的小石蜡。

The smaller version of the system uses two such tiles; the bigger one has nine.

小版本（假胡子）使用两块石蜡；大版本（面罩）有九块。

The researchers claim that they can generate a scent, such as mint or green tea, in as little as 1.44 seconds.

研究人员说，它们可以在短短1.44秒内产生一种气味，如薄荷味或绿茶味。

The nine generators on the mask can combine to produce hundreds of possible odours.
面罩上的九个发生器可以结合起来，产生数百种气味。

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Drs Li and Yu have been beaten to market by OVR, a startup based in Vermont.

李博士和于博士的发明已被位于佛蒙特州的初创公司OVR 抢先上市。

Its headset uses a system of refillable cartridges, each of which can make thousands of scents.

它的虚拟现实耳机使用一种可补充的墨盒系统，每个墨盒可以产生成数千种气味。

The firm’s newest product, the “ION3”, will be released later this year, and can be tied into existing game-creation tools with minimal fuss.
该公司的最新产品 "ION3 "将于今年晚些时候发布，并且可以毫不费力地与现有的游戏制作工具结合起来。

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Getting smells right could make virtual worlds more compelling. Odours are famously evocative.

对的气味可以使虚拟世界更具吸引力。众所周知，气味引发联想。

The part of the brain that processes them connects directly to parts associated with emotions and memory.

大脑中处理气味的部分直接与情感和记忆有关的部分相连。

But the science is tricky.Unlike colour or sound, where wavelengths and frequencies combine in predictable ways, smell is not so straightforward.

但科学很棘手。与颜色或声音不同，色彩波长和声音频率以可预测的方式结合在一起，而气味则没那么简单。

Altering a single chemical bond can shift a scent from sweet to rancid.

改变单个化学键就可以将气味从甜味转变为腐臭味。

Whether smelly VR will do better than smelly films remains to be seen.

嗅觉VR是否会比嗅觉电影做得更好，尚无定论。

But perhaps one day users will be able to stop, swipe and smell the virtual roses.
但也许有一天，用户停下来刷一下设备就能闻到虚拟世界的玫瑰花香。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量435左右）
原文出自：2023年5月13日《The Economist》Science & technology版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
嗅觉视觉Smell-O-Vision是一个在20世纪60年代提出的概念，旨在通过向电影中添加气味来增强观影体验。这个想法是在电影中特定的时刻释放不同的气味，与屏幕上正在发生的事情相对应。然而，这项技术从未真正流行起来，只有少数几部电影曾使用过统。这个系统通过位于每个座位下方的通风口来散发气味。当电影进入特定场景时，风扇会将气味吹向观众。这些气味通常使用化学物质和天然成分混合而成，并旨在模拟花、食物或甚至火药等气味。虽然看起来很新颖，但实际上它很难有效地实施。这些气味通常太过浓烈或与屏幕上所发生的不匹配，而安装和维护设备的成本对大多数电影院来说过高。因此这种体验最终并没有持续发展下去。

【重点句子】（3个）
These days the cutting-edge of entertainment is video games and virtual reality, not films.Several groups are trying to bring scents to virtual worlds.
如今最前沿的娱乐是视频游戏和虚拟现实，而不是电影。一些团队正努力将气味带入虚拟世界。

Its headset uses a system of refillable cartridges, each of which can make thousands of scents.
它的虚拟现实耳机使用一种可补充的墨盒系统，每个墨盒可以产生成数千种气味。

Getting smells right could make virtual worlds more compelling. Odours are famously evocative.
对的气味可以使虚拟世界更具吸引力。众所周知，气味引发联想。