Scentstories offers memory ehancement

Memory has long been known to be associative in nature with a strong intuitive relationship between scents and memories. We can instantly be taken back to a time and place in our lives when we are confronted with a familiar smell - that one sensory stimulus in the here-and-now can bring back a flood of images, emotions and thoughts.

In Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) parlance the process of eliciting a certain state via a sensory stimulus is known as direct anchoring.

Thanks to Febreze, a U.S. based company known for its deodorising products, an innovative new product called Scentstories allows you to explore these hidden dimensions with what could become the 'Viewmaster' of the nose.

Scentstories is based upon the very basic ideas of anchoring and aims to create varying environment based scenarios using multiple scents that people are familiar with. Looking like an elongated portable stereo player, the Febreze scent player 'plays' scents like you would play music.

By inserting themed discs and pushing the play button, players can rotate through five scents on each disc, one by one, with a new scent every 30 minutes for a total of two and half hours of olefactory entertainment.

Each themed scent disc is intended to provide the user with a multi-dimensional environment.

There are such varied themes as 'exploring a mountain trail', 'wandering barefoot on the shore', 'strolling through the garden', 'relaxing in the hammock' and 'shades of vanilla'. The 'mountain trail' disc, for example, will progress through five scent 'scenes' including 'following the winding trail', 'walking beside wildflowers', 'exploring the mountains', 'high in the mountain pass' and 'gazing at the tall firs'.

We can only hope that the experience isn't entirely authentic, especially for those who suffer from hay-fever!

The discs are reusable and will last about fifty hours on high intensity. Intensity can be altered to three settings; low, medium and high based on the size of the room and the amount of scent desired.

The player shuts off automatically after all five scents have been played. Like a normal CD player, scent 'tracks' can be stopped or skipped through at any time.

Febreze claims that together, the Scentstories player and disc create a new-to-the-world scent experience each time. Febreze offers a limited warranty on the unit and the price is around US$35 with scent discs costing around US$6.

More information can be found at http://www.scentstories.com