Most people play video games to escape from reality, to find release from the drudge and monotony of their painful, pointless lives – Heaven knows I do. There are others who would prefer video games to be more realistic, maybe because they want to impose the suffering of their own existence on others, or possibly through some misguided contentedness with life.

Birmingham University’s Professor Bob Stone is a such a man, although his reasons for wanting more realistic games appears to be noble (rather than inappropriate or sadistic). Professor Stone has developed technology that allows consoles to create “smell effects” during video games. His device is programmed to releases certain odours at certain moments during a game, taking advantage of the second-most “information-rich” of our senses according to the prof. His research isn’t being funded by Nintendo or Sony, but by the Ministry of Defence so that they can provide British soldiers-in-training with realistic practice scenarios for future military scenarios. The device is used in training games, creating smells that help the player making decisions in the game’s scenario. Examples scenarios include having to identify an improvised explosive, being involved in close quarters combat, and even picking up on triggers for post-traumatic stress disorder.

While its use for military training is certainly intriguing, and whether the technology would indeed function suitably for public use is certainly debatable – remember the doomed Smell-O-Vision? – there is a far more pertinent question that needs to be answered. Let’s ignore the sceptics who are cynically shaking their heads, and consider a reality where Professor Stone’s device is being made for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and all the other games devices. The question, then, is how would games actually smell? What smells would be created and released during our favourite video games? Well, ‘who really knows?’ you may say, but that isn’t going to stop me from postulating.