City University London will be staging a Circus for the Senses, with Professor Adrian Cheok showcasing his pioneering work on the multi-sensory internet. During the Universities Week 2014, from the 9th to 11th June, City will be joining universities across the UK as they celebrate their most cutting-edge research at the entrance free exhibition at the Natural History Museum.
Professor Adrian David Cheok, a chair Professor of Pervasive Computing in the School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering at City, will give visitors a glimpse of his impressive research and inventions. According to a City University website report, City’s stand will feature the “Scentee” device, which emits the smell of one’s favourite meal and works through a connection to a smartphone.
The first ever telehug ring called “RingU”, which uses the internet to transmit a “finger squeeze” in real-time to let your love ones know you are thinking of them; and a digitally actuated lollipop, also a wirelessly connected device to the internet, which digitally creates a sense of taste by stimulating the taste buds will be featured on the display as well.
Photo from City University London’s website
Founder and director of the Mixed Reality Lab, Professor Cheok, said on City’s Spotlight on Research: “What I want to do is to connect all our senses to the internet. Today you can post a picture on Facebook and describe what you are up to, but what does it smell like to be at that amazing beach or how does dinner taste at that Michelin star restaurant?”
“I want us to move from the information age, where we are communicating logical data across the internet to the experience age where we communicate sensual data such as touch, smell and taste,” he added.
Australian-born Professor Cheok came to city in 2013 after working as an Associate Professor at University in Singapore and as a Full Professor at the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University in Japan. His research’s coverage includes mixed reality, human-computer interfaces, wearable computers and ubiquitous computing, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, and power electronics.