Six Sense Sniffer

Airborne information has been investigated for influencing people’s memories and emotions intimately. According to research, 140 kinds of olfactory signals have been discovered so far. Among various airborne communicational signals, pheromone plays an essential role in these alternative communication. Pheromones, also known as the six sense, are given off innately by plants, animals and human beings. These odorless chemical molecules play an essential role in socially relevant emotions such as fear, aggression and contentment, inducing innate responses and corresponding stimuli. Six Sense Sniffer is a speculative design which functions an augment reality wearable device for invisible information in the air, which intends to arouse imaginations about alternative communication in the near future. What if we can be aware of pheromone in the air? Will we become more empathetic?



Our body odors are our unique identities resulting from different genes we have, carrying various kinds of chemosensory signals according to Stern and McClintock. In other words, body odors are mediums holding informations for alternative non-verbal communication in the same species. Within distinct components of our body odors, pheromone and signature mixtures (mainly made of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)), both are volatile and soluble, have been identified of relation to unconscious behaviors from distinguished aspects such as synchronization of women’s ovulation and menstrual cycle. While signature mixtures are more related to identity, mate selection and sexual attraction, pheromones control more dynamic information including regulation of empathic feelings and processing of social emotional stimuli by triggering certain receptors in the brain. Unlike common olfactory signals going through main olfactory system(MOS) evoking sensation of smell, pheromones are detected through the second channel in our noses, the vomeronasal organ (VNO), trance-amine-associated receptors and Gruenberg ganglion cells, inputting to hypothalamic neurons controlling our behaviors, which is regarded as the six sense. "Our vomeronasal organ under the pheromones influence sends a signal to the brain part called a “seat of emotions”, which can control our feelings and sexual desires." --- The Power of Pheromones

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References

Blakeslee, Sandra. "Human Nose May Hold An Additional Organ For a Real Sixth Sense." The New York Times. 1993.

Brennan, Peter A., and Frank Zufall. "Pheromonal Communication in Vertebrates." Nature 444, no. 7117 (2006): 308-15.

Cutler, Winnifred B., Erika Friedmann, and Norma L. McCoy. "Pheromonal Influences on Sociosexual Behavior in Men." Archives of Sexual Behavior 28, no. 1 (1998).

Filsinger, Erik E., and Richard A. Fabes. "Odor Communication, Pheromones, and Human Families." Journal of Marriage and Family 47, no. 2 (1985): 349-59.

Hays, Warren S. T. "Human Pheromones: Have They Been Demonstrated?" Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 54, no. 2 (2003): 89-97.

Stern, Kathleen, and Martha K. Mcclintock. "Regulation of Ovulation by Human Pheromones." Nature 392, no. 6672 (1998): 177-79.

Weller, Aron. "Human Pheromones: Communication through Body Odour." Nature 392, no. 6672 (1998): 126-27.