We took the three smell boxes to MERL to test them with the group from Reading College. They had already used littleBits in two prior workshops, so were acquainted with them and had some idea of what they should do with the parts. A demo of how the smell box is used was given first and then they were handed out for testing. In the image below, a smellbox is being triggered with a push button (and an LED inline, too):
Two (further) deficiencies of the box:
- The fan is underpowered, in the sense that it does not push enough air volume;
- The fan seems to blow at an angle, and not directly out of the rear port. This means that you have to place your nose somewhere in line with the corner of the box to smell it.
It might be better if the smell emanated from the top of the box, and blown at an angle so that it is properly distributed. Below, a participant in the workshop examining the smell box (it contained a twig of rosemary):
