Engaging Users in Smell Self-Care at Home
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
Smell disorders have long been neglected, despite known links to Parkinson's, dementia and to shorter life expectancy. Recent public and patient engagement work by the charity Fifth Sense (FS) has shown a failure to provide a good service for such patients in the UK. It also showed the need for better treatment and support.
This lack of support has been made worse in the COVID-pandemic, leaving patients and doctors struggling to advise those affected by smell disorders. This adds to the mental health problems that are linked to the loss of smell. To date, based on UK infection rates, nearly 500,000 people have lasting symptoms of smell loss or change (>4 weeks). These may be linked to other Long-COVID symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems and brain fog.
Smell training, a type of smell care, now has several studies showing it can help recover smell function. This is very true in older people, where people suffer a natural decline of the sense of smell. However, current smell training methods are limited to pens soaked in smells or jars of essential oils. A digital solution can overcome these drawbacks and enable digital smell training. This may be delivered in multiple settings including medical, care homes and private homes. The latter sits at the heart of this project's ambition, namely, to enable smell self-care (I-smell) at home.
A key question this project will try to answer is how and why people will take on and accept I-smell, and keep using it in regular, daily exercises? We all know that it is hard work to set up a routine and keeping it, is even harder. Whilst more people are aware of the importance of smell care in the wider public due to the pandemic, it is easily forgotten and lost when the sense of smell works or seems to work 'well' again.
We will study how I-smell is taken into daily routines and any barriers to that. This will be measured by looking at the impact on people's quality of life and wellbeing. We will gain first-hand early-stage user feedback from chosen households that will take part in a 6-month feasibility study using a novel digital technology in their homes. We aim to establish a clear understanding of peoples' underlying reasons, opinions and motivations to engage with I-smell over time.
This feasibility study will inform the design of future health and care technology solutions, as well as informing the design of future clinical and population trials. It will also allow us to explore designs for tomorrow's home that go beyond the current focus on control of environmental conditions such as energy, lighting, temperature and humidity. We will consider how this type of technology will work with existing smart home devices such as Google Home or Alexa.
Our long-term vision is to add self-monitoring records for our sense of smell (akin to hearing and sight tests) into electronic health records (EHR). This would provide a great opportunity to make treatments personal for individuals and allow timely actions by GPs. For example, data could be analysed by artificial intelligence that could lead to earlier diagnosis of diseases like Parkinson's by a decade. Introducing digital solutions for smell self-care can help maintain and extend independent living at home and improve the quality of life.
This lack of support has been made worse in the COVID-pandemic, leaving patients and doctors struggling to advise those affected by smell disorders. This adds to the mental health problems that are linked to the loss of smell. To date, based on UK infection rates, nearly 500,000 people have lasting symptoms of smell loss or change (>4 weeks). These may be linked to other Long-COVID symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems and brain fog.
Smell training, a type of smell care, now has several studies showing it can help recover smell function. This is very true in older people, where people suffer a natural decline of the sense of smell. However, current smell training methods are limited to pens soaked in smells or jars of essential oils. A digital solution can overcome these drawbacks and enable digital smell training. This may be delivered in multiple settings including medical, care homes and private homes. The latter sits at the heart of this project's ambition, namely, to enable smell self-care (I-smell) at home.
A key question this project will try to answer is how and why people will take on and accept I-smell, and keep using it in regular, daily exercises? We all know that it is hard work to set up a routine and keeping it, is even harder. Whilst more people are aware of the importance of smell care in the wider public due to the pandemic, it is easily forgotten and lost when the sense of smell works or seems to work 'well' again.
We will study how I-smell is taken into daily routines and any barriers to that. This will be measured by looking at the impact on people's quality of life and wellbeing. We will gain first-hand early-stage user feedback from chosen households that will take part in a 6-month feasibility study using a novel digital technology in their homes. We aim to establish a clear understanding of peoples' underlying reasons, opinions and motivations to engage with I-smell over time.
This feasibility study will inform the design of future health and care technology solutions, as well as informing the design of future clinical and population trials. It will also allow us to explore designs for tomorrow's home that go beyond the current focus on control of environmental conditions such as energy, lighting, temperature and humidity. We will consider how this type of technology will work with existing smart home devices such as Google Home or Alexa.
Our long-term vision is to add self-monitoring records for our sense of smell (akin to hearing and sight tests) into electronic health records (EHR). This would provide a great opportunity to make treatments personal for individuals and allow timely actions by GPs. For example, data could be analysed by artificial intelligence that could lead to earlier diagnosis of diseases like Parkinson's by a decade. Introducing digital solutions for smell self-care can help maintain and extend independent living at home and improve the quality of life.
Publications
Besevli C
(2024)
Smell Above All: Envisioning Smell-Centred Future Worlds
Besevli C
(2023)
Nose Gym: An Interactive Smell Training Solution
Brooks J
(2023)
Third Wave or Winter? The Past and Future of Smell in HCI
| Title | Project Video Smell Care: The importance of our Sense of Smell & How we can Care for our Nose |
| Description | Video shared on Youtube, describing the projects aim to investigate digital smell training through a user-centred lens, to help those with loss of smell. The contribution that the human sense of smell makes to quality of life and wellbeing is immense, with a unique link to emotions and memories. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | We reached 96 subscribers so far and use the video for promoting the future impact of the project, as part of talks, events, etc. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk45bQZ6ElA&t=212s |
| Title | The Making Sense Garden Creation for people with smell disorders at Hampton Court Palace Garden festival |
| Description | The RHS Hampton Court Palace garden festival is a combination of horticultural exhibits, music, and talks. One of the exhibits was "The Making Sense Garden" created by Flora Scouarnec and Victoria Pease-Cox, in cooperation with Fifth Sense - Smell Care partner. The Making Sense Garden has a sensory theme and has been designed specifically for people with smell and taste disorders in mind. The garden was created to provide a space for people with disorders such as anosmia or hyposmia, to explore, sit, talk and enjoy a garden in which the other senses - sight, sound and touch - are enhanced and given a platform. As part of this garden festival we promoted digital smell training, engaging the visitors in a discussion between physical (garden scents) and digital smelling. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | The Making Sense Garden attracted the wider public and engaged them in a conversation with the Smell Care team and Fifth Sense representative. |
| URL | https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival/gardens/2024/making-sen... |
| Title | Urban Lab: Memory Workshop Exhibition |
| Description | Urban Lab is a space for events, exhibitions, workshops and engagement with local stakeholders, professional audiences, and the wider public in east London. The Smell Care team organised an exhibition focused on Memory & Smell. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Lots of conversations with visitors on the important relationship between memory and the sense of smell. |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/about/ucl-east/ucl-urban-room |
| Description | A total of 18 households, across two locations - London and Norwich - where recruited to take part in the world's first digital smell training (DST) intervention. For this real-world deployment, a novel scent-delivery system with App control was placed in people's home over a six month period. Each household was asked to carry out a DST session twice a day, each lasting less than 5 minutes. Digital records of participants olfactory perception (perceived scent intensity) were recorded and enriched through additional journal entries capturing contextual and emotional factors affecting the daily engagement. Through a mixed method approach we captured a rich understanding of the underlying motives, barriers, and overall experiences with DST, and technology adoption in a real-world setting. While we are still finalising the analysis as part of a scientific publication, we can already report that the project demonstrated high adherence and low drop-out rates compared to traditional analogue digital smell training interventions. Moreover, participants adoption of the digital technology probe into their home was successful, so much that participants wanted to continue the training beyond the limited six months period; a key indicator for acceptance, that was also confirmed by standardised acceptance questionnaires and through interviews and community meet-ups. Overall, the rich empirical insights from this feasibility project only form the beginning of our effort to establish a culture of smell care and create lasting positive impact on people's health and well-being. Beyond the direct outcomes from this funding, we engaged in global engagement activities, most notably: 1) New collaboration with Tohoku University (TU) on a cross-cultural dialogue between UK and Japan on the opportunities for smell care on health and well-being; supported by a UCL global partnership fund. 2) Invited presentation at the Digital Olfaction conference 2024 in Tokyo, Japan, presenting our digital smell care innovation and opportunities for digital smell testing, see https://digital-olfaction.com/. 3) Collaboration with The Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Founded in 1968, it is dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on the senses of taste and smell. The PI Prof Marianna Obrist and Project Partner Duncan Boak from the Fifth Sense Charity gave invited talks at Monell in November 2023, and now co-author an article, currently under review; see OSF Preprint https://osf.io/preprints/osf/5knb2_v1. |
| Exploitation Route | Next to scientific publications, we are actively seeking new funding opportunities to make use of the insights for: 1) Clinical research: fostering the engagement with ENT experts Prof Carl Philpott and Prof Matt Lechner, and integrating regular smell testing and training into routine health checks that could provide early detection and timely treatment/intervention for diseases development. 2) Built environments: exploring the integration of novel olfactory interfaces into future home design and private-public environments augmented through scent. Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, from the Bartlett School, is further expanding our projects impact towards a new collaboration with Tohoku University. 3) Public engagement: collaborating with the Charity Fifth Sense and Future Care Capital to create more awareness about the importance of the sense of smell, especially for healthy ageing. 4) Policy engagement: driving a dialogue on the need for policies and support for those suffering of smell disorders 5) Economic impact and drive for digital health innovation: developing new personalised digital health solutions that account for regular training but also take other contextual factors and health data (e.g. physical health, nutrition, sleep) into account, especially through working with our industry partner Hynt (former OWidgets, T/A OW Smell Made Digital). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Healthcare |
| URL | https://www.smell-care.co.uk/ |
| Description | While it is too early to quantify and narrate the impact of this project, especially as we are still in the final stage of data analysis and write up, it is notable to state that this project has led to a wide range of engagement activities, from academia, industry, and the wider public. Moreover, we were able to secure additional smaller funding awards to expand on the efforts of the project, both with regards to 1) a stronger focus on the built environments (tomorrows' homes for smell care) and 2) cross-cultural perspectives with valuable insights from Japan a leading country with a long history of smell care in daily life. Finally, the project team closely engages with the project partners to reach a wider audience, especially through the Fifth Sense team (the main charity to support people with smell and taste disorders), and industry partner OWidgets - now Hynt Labs Limited (rebranded in February 2025). The latter saw many demos of the DST at industry and investor showcase events organised by Parkwalk Investors. The unique combination of academic expertise in Human-Computer Interaction/digital technology, clinical expertise, architecture, combined with the efforts and continuous involvement/support by our project partners, enables us to pursue the ambition of this project, namely to transform care and health at home in the future and enable longer independence for individuals. To celebrate our efforts we organised a main event on 20 September 2024 to celebrate "Smell Above All" - attracting over 100 attendees from academia, industry, charities, policy within the UK and beyond. We had international representatives from the USA, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, and Japan. See further information on the project website: https://www.smell-care.co.uk/ |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | OWSleep: Development of a Smart, Digital Scent Technology for Improved Sleep Quality |
| Amount | £699,903 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 10100947 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2024 |
| End | 11/2025 |
| Description | A Cross-Cultural Dialogue on the Potential of the Sense of Smell for Health and Wellbeing |
| Organisation | Tohoku University |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Supported by a UCL and Tohoku University Strategic Partner Fund, the Smell Care team was enable to foster a cross-cultural dialogue on the possibilities around the sense of smell both from the perspective of co-creating and shaping a culture of 'smell care' (i.e. enhanced appreciation for the sense of smell in everyday life, wellbeing, and health) and explore the importance of smell as nonverbal communication medium. This new collaboration resulted in joint research activities including online and in-person workshops, as well as cross-cultural survey on the sense of smell and smell care culture, applying a user-centred and design futuring approach. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof Yoshifumi Kitamura at Tohoku University and his team helped us to extend our approach to establishing a smell care culture. Looking beyond Western cultures, the appreciation of the sense of smell is higher in Japan and other Asian countries (e.g. China, Korea) who have a long history of including smell into their daily ritual. For example, as early as Empress Suiko's reign (595 CE), Japanese people have started to notice that the wood smelled pleasant when they put it near a fire. A formal school of art, Kodo (??, "Way of Fragrance"), was established to appreciate Japanese incense. It is one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with kado (flower arrangement), and chado (tea and the tea ceremony). Even today, there is a strong relationship and holistic approach in kodo between fragrant scent, the senses, the human spirit, and nature. Through a user-centred approach embedded in a cross-cultural dialogue between UK and Japan, we did progress on our research objectives, which were also included in the main Smell Care event in September 2024, where Prof Kitamura and his team attended and presented our shared vision. |
| Impact | Workshops • The internal workshop on the future of smell focused on a Worldbuilding activity, complementing the online workshops held in Spring'24. • Additionally, the UCL team provided workshop training to the Tohoku team, preparing them for the participant workshop. • Future of Smell - Participant workshop took place on the 19th of June, with 14 participants (6M, 8F) and six moderators, in Japanese. A Cross-Cultural Survey on Smell care across the UK and Japan is ongoing. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | Smell Care System |
| Description | This system consists of a odour-delivery device with 6-channels and a companion App for digital smell training developed by the project partner OWidgets - rebranded to Hynt Labs Limited on 14 February 2025. This is the first digital solution the enables daily smell training sessions at home and digital records of the olfactory perception (i.e. perceived odour intensity). |
| Type Of Technology | Systems, Materials & Instrumental Engineering |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | As part of this project, this technical solution was embedded as part of the methodological approach to understand participants engagement with daily smell training. For that purpose the digital records were extended with a mixed-method approach that combined interviews, questionnaires, meet-ups and regular feedback sessions. A fundamental user-centred approach was applied, and combined with regular consultation with our dedicated project PPI panel, who provide valuable feedback on the methods, recruitment and other project engagement activities. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9hXj8qch0A&t=15s |
| Description | 29th Congress of the European Rhinologic Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Trial mentioned in talk on the smell and taste clinic |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://ers-isian2023.com/ |
| Description | 2nd UK Smell & Taste Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | trial update at the symposium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/smell-taste-symposium-2023-uea/ |
| Description | BADU Community (School) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Middle-school and high-school students from underprivileged communities, recruited from the BADU community, engage in a interactive workshop around the sense of smell, including technology demos and speculative design activities, led by both the research fellows: Ceylan Besevli and Giada Brianza, sparking further interest in the topic and follow up discussions about placements in the research team to shadow the research activities. by one of the high-school students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://thebaduway.com/ |
| Description | BBC Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Discussing the smell and taste symposium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | CHI 2023 Interactivity demonstration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CHI 2023, the premier academic conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), took place from April 23 - 28, 2023 in Hamburg, Germany. CHI 2023 was attended by a total of 4707 people from 82 countries. The project "Interactivity Demonstration" was presented over several days throughout the conference, attracting over 500 attendees to visit the booth and engage in a smell training activity. Next to a demo of the digital solution, developed by our project partner OWidgets (O/// Smell Made Digital), we prepared an interactive wall to collect feedback from attendees, and provided further information on the loss of smell and opportunities around smell training, resulting in a non-stop interaction of the project team on-site with conference attendees. This was further supported by a panel discussion on the sense of smell involving the project PI Prof Marianna Obrist. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://chi2023.acm.org/ |
| Description | CHI 2023 Panel discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CHI 2023, the premier academic conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), took place from April 23 - 28, 2023 in Hamburg, Germany. CHI 2023 was attended by a total of 4707 people from 82 countries.This panel discussion involved the PI Prof Marianna Obrist, alongside other leading HCI researcher in the field of olfactory interfaces, promoting the future opportunities for smell as interaction modality. This panel enabled us to promote the importance of smell for health and wellbeing and encourage the attendees, around 100 academics and professionals, to also have a hands-on experience in the projects' interactivity demonstration that was ongoing throughout the conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://chi2023.acm.org/ |
| Description | Conference Poster to enable Citizen-Centred Care |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | The Collaborate to Innovate: Enabling Citizen-Centred Care conference involved 115 attendees and enabled academics to engage with regional stakeholders in order to make a chance in health and social care. The project was represented by Sanjoli Mathur (UEA research fellow), promoting the importance of smell care and its part in future routine health practices and care, in form of a poster. This participation allowed engagement with the local community as well as strengthening the engagement with the Citizen Academy, who was cohosting the conference, and is a key link for participant recruitment and our PPI panel. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://ueahscp.com/conferences/ |
| Description | DIS 2023 Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 15 academics and professionals from diverse backgrounds in design, humanities, computer science, and engineering attended a dedicated workshop at DIS 2023 - a leading conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), resulting in new insights and feedback on the future of smell, smell training in different spaces. This work inspired follow up discussions and actions between the workshop attendees, including the project team representatives from UCL (Dr Ceylan Besevli), UEA (Sanjoli Mathur), and project partner OWidgets (O/// Smell Made Digital, represented by Dr Christopher Dawes). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://hcibook.net/incontext/dis-2023/ |
| Description | DIS 2024 Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | DIS 2024, premier academic conference on HCI and Interaction Design - took place 1-5 July in Copenhagen, where we presented our full paper "Smell Above All: Envisioning Smell-Centred Future Worlds". Within this work we conducted a design futuring workshop involving individuals with varying smell capabilities and expertise to envision and discuss smell-centred futures. Through iterative reflection, we arrived at three smell worlds presented as narratives and visuals. From this conceptual work, we offer new perspectives and generative possibilities for design research that prioritises our noses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660699 |
| Description | Demo at Sensory Experiences Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This symposium brought together an interdisciplinary and diverse group of academics, students, and professional (approx 20-30 attendees) to discuss the state of the art in human sensory experiences, including invited talks such as by Prof Marianna Obrist (PI of this research project) and a demo of the digital smell training solution by the research fellow Giada Brianza. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Digital Olfaction -- Olfactory Interfaces for Smell Testing and Training: Innovations from an HCI Perspective |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 8th Digital Olfaction (DOS) World Congress 2024, which was held on December 5-6 in Tokyo, was a great success. Over 40 presentations and demonstrations on the latest olfaction and digital olfaction research were delivered to an audience of over 90 attendees representing 22 countries. The primary aim of this invited talk was to showcase the advances in novel immersive multisensory interfaces, promoted by Human-Computer Interaction research to a range of academic disciplines and industry representatives. The talk focused on the digital scent technology and its various use cases, especially smell testing and digital smell training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://digital-olfaction.com/ |
| Description | ECRO 2023 Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 100 attendees at the ECRO (European Chemoreception Research Organization) 2023 Conference, attended the PI's Prof Marianna Obrists' closing keynote of the event, promoting smell care research towards the interdisciplinary and international audience that sparked questions from patient representatives and clinical experts on the details of the digital smell training solution and the longitudinal field deployment in peoples' home - a unique, and globally first-ever example for bringing smell care into peoples homes through advances in digital technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.ecro.online/meetings/past-meetings/nijnmegen-2023/ |
| Description | Fifth Sense National Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Research update at a patient conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Healthcare Engineering Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Through a panel discussion joint by Dr Ceylan Besevli (Research Fellow of the I-Smell project) and Duncan Boak (project partner from the Charity Fifth Sense), the team promoted the importance of smell care and integration of routine smell checks in healthcare practices, alongside the need for more awareness creation both amongst clinicians/healthcare professionals as well as the wider public. This annual event organised by the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, is a platform for cross-disciplinary discussions that spark further engagement with funders and decision makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/healthcare-engineering/events/2023/oct/ucl-institute-healthcare-engineering-re... |
| Description | International Olfactory Display Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Full day event dedicated to sharing research and innovations on olfactory technology with researchers/professionals from UK, Japan, Sweden and Italy. We presented the project and showcased the prototype. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | http://silvia.mn.ee.titech.ac.jp/html_en/Location8.pdf |
| Description | International Symposium for Olfaction and Taste |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, or shortly "ISOT", convenes every four years and unites the chemosensory research communities in Europe (European Chemoreception Research Organization; ECRO), Japan (The Japanese Association for the Study of Taste and Smell; JASTS), and North America (Association for Chemoreception Sciences; AChemS). The first ISOT meeting was held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1962. The meeting rotates since 1986 every 4 years between sites in Europe, Japan, and the USA. At the ISOT meeting scientist of all continents discuss the latest chemosensory research. Prof Carl Philpott and RA Sanjoli Mathur presented the Smell Care project at the symposium, including presenting a poster with preliminary research insights from the feasibility study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ecro.online/meetings/isot-2024/ |
| Description | International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, Reykjavik, Iceland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | presentation at ISOT |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | International Symposium: Dialogue for Global Innovation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Since 2010, Dialogue for Global Innovation (DFGI) has been accelerating borderless innovation in Japan and European countries. Over the past 10 years, DFGI has held industry-academia collaboration symposiums at embassies, national laboratories, and leading universities to exchange the latest results and business insights from various fields. Prof Marianna Obrist was chairing a panel on 'Human Flourishing and Wellbeing' with a particular focus on responsibilities for digital innovations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.dfgi.net/ |
| Description | Invited speaker and panellist on Interfaces for the Future of Human Expression |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Approximately 48 students attended the talk that combined speakers from the UK and US, for a mainly Korean audience. This KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Symposium sparked an relevant discussion on how we can create new ways of expressiveness in digital spaces, through multisensory integration, accounting both for the technological advances in sensory devices and interfaces as well as insights into human perception, behaviour and emotions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | JPUH Grand Rounds - Reflecting on a decade of the UK's first smell and taste clinic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Grand rounds presentation including research on smell and taste disorders |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Multisensory Interfaces and a Cross-cultural dialogue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As part of this invited talk at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, the advancements on multisensory interfaces - integrating touch and smell into physical and digital environments - sparked interesting follow up conversations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Multisensory Interfaces | At the Studio with Kitchen Theory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | At the studio with Kitchen Theory is a video podcast where we Chef Jozef Youseff talks about the latest in innovation, science and creativity within the world of gastronomy, with innovative, scientific and creative guests. The Podcast has over 300 followers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.smell-care.co.uk/news-and-events |
| Description | Panel on Advancements in Women's Health Technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The one-day Innovation in women's health tech event brings together experts from academia, healthcare and industry to explore the future of AI, robotics and VR in women's healthcare. Prof Marianna Obrist is an invited panelist on the 'Advancements in Women's Health Technologies' promoting the novel focus on smell health innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/events/2025/mar/innovation-womens-health-tech-2025 |
| Description | Patient engagement/Fifth Sense Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | This 2023 conference organised by the project partner/charity Fifth Sense offered the project a great opportunity to meet those affected by smell / taste disorders and their family members, share experiences, learn more about your condition and find out about latest advances in research. Dr Ceylan Besevli, research fellow on the I-smell project, gave a short talk and a presentation of the digital smell training solution to the 75 attendees, stimulating rich discussions on the plans beyond this 'feasibility project' in order to transform peoples' everyday life and health care around the sense of smell. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/events/fifth-sense-national-conference-2023/ |
| Description | Podcast on Health in a Handbasket - How underrated is our sense of smell? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The aim of this podcast engagement was to make a wider audience aware about the importance of smell, asking the question "When was the last time you gave any thought to your sense of smell?" Giada Brianza, from the project team, was interviewed about the advancements towards a digital smell training solution that is tested as part of this feasibility project. Through close collaboration with the project partner OWidgets (O/// Smell Made Digital), a science-driven University spin-out from UCL and Sussex University, we were able to design and deploy a technology probe in peoples' homes and study how and why people engage in daily smell training sessions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/healthcare-engineering/health-handbasket-podcast/health-handbasket-episode-1-h... |
| Description | Science Bites |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the feasibility project, our methodology includes monthly 'Science Bites' for each participant. We make those science bites related to the sense of smell available through our Project website in order to inform a wider audience about the importance of our sense of smell. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.smell-care.co.uk/resources/science-bites |
| Description | Smell Above All: Where the Nose Meets Technology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event "Smell Above All: Where the Nose Meets Technology" took place on 20 September 2024, as a main celebration of the vision and achievements of the EPSRC/NIHR-funded Smell Care Project. The event featured dynamic discussions, live demonstrations, and invaluable insights from participants, academics, clinicians, and industry partners. Special thanks to our keynote speakers: Chef Jozef Youssef from Kitchen Theory and UCL Engineering Dean, Nigel Titchener-Hooker, for their inspiring contributions. To further immerse the audience, the event organised an interactive session filled with live demonstrations, exploring the intersection of technology, clinical practice, and citizen science. Highlights of the demo session included: - New Scent Technologies: OW Smell Made Digital showcased innovations in scent-enhanced multimedia, smart home interfaces, and sleep research. - Clinical Perspectives: Prof. Carl Philpott and Prof. Matt Lechner demonstrated "Sniffin' Sticks" smell tests, offering a clinical look at how scent is tested. - Crossmodal Interactions: Assoc. Prof. Oussama Metatla's Diverse-ability Interaction Lab from the University of Bristol presented playful experiments exploring the connections between scent and other senses, such as sound and colour. - Smell Heritage: UCL's Odeuropa team provided an exploration of historical scents and smell heritage. - Scent-Enhanced VR: Dr. Christopher Dawes from UCL showcased a virtual reality experience focused on sustainable textile practices, as part of the Textiles Circularity Center. - Levitating Droplets: AcoustoFab, a UCL spin-off, demonstrated contactless scent diffusion using levitating droplets. - Digital Citizens: Dr Anna Carter from Northumbria University shared insights into the Centre for Digital Citizens and its work on smell care. - Olfactory Art: Dr Andreas Keller from the Olfactory Art Keller gallery in New York presented an exploration of new scents, along with his ongoing collaboration with the Smell Care team on smell testing. This event was planned as a final event for the smell care project, before our six months extension was granted, but it marked the completion of our real-world field deployment of digital smell training. Our participants attended the event alongside members of the PPI panel. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.smell-care.co.uk/news-and-events |
| Description | Smell Care at 'Hello Brain!' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Our project partner, the Fifth Sense team, along with our Principal Investigator, Prof. Marianna Obrist, and Mary O'Shaughnessy (Cadent Gas Ltd), were invited to the Hello Brain! exhibition at The Francis Crick Institute. This engaging exhibition explores the connections between the olfactory system and brain function and runs until June 2025. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.crick.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/hello-brain |
| Description | Smell Taste 15 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk on post-infectious olfactory dysfunction |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Smell and Taste Disorder Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | This annual Smell and Taste Symposium organised by the University of East anglia, involves between 25-35 attendees with a primary focus on patient perspectives, clinical and chemosensory testing, and practical demonstrations such as provided by the project for the 'smell care demo'. Taken together, this event sparked a lot of interest in the projects use of digital technology for supporting people with smell disorders, in order to train and regain their sense of smell, but also to create more awareness about the technological advancements the project provides. The project team, represented by Dr Ceylan Besevli and Sanjoli Mathur, gave a talk as part of the symposium, as well as did a demonstration of the digital smell training solution not only to patients and patient representatives, but also to the media. The project was featured as part of the Smell and Taste Symposium at Norwich by BBC Look East - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-65557028 Moreover, one of the world-leading experts in smell training and olfaction Prof Thomas Hummel from the Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Germany, was in attendance, and was impressed by the demonstration, and provided valuable feedback on the design for future considerations, as well as offered to be involved in any future collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://rhinology-group.uea.ac.uk/smell-and-taste-symposium-2024 |
| Description | Smell and Taste Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This annual Smell and Taste Symposium organised by the University of East anglia, involves between 25-35 attendees with a primary focus on patient perspectives, clinical and chemosensory testing, and practical demonstrations such as provided by the project for the 'smell care demo'. Taken together, this event sparked a lot of interest in the projects use of digital technology for supporting people with smell disorders, in order to train and regain their sense of smell, but also to create more awareness about the technological advancements the project provides. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://rhinology-group.uea.ac.uk/smell-and-taste-symposium-2024/ |
| Description | The Role of Multisensory Experiences in XR: Unlocking the power of smell |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The International Summer School on eXtended Reality Technology and eXperience provided a great platform to share two main advancements: 1) the advances in digitally controlled scent delivery, and 2) the use of this digital scent technology when integrating into XR environments in order to create novel immersive experiences. This inspired discussions with the students, other lecturer and speakers both from academia and industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://qomex2025.itec.aau.at/comittes/organizing-committee/ |
| Description | Thinking Black / EDI School Outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 12 high school students from underpriviledged communities visited the research group at UCL for a short overview talk and interactive demos including the digital smell training demonstration from this project. This outreach event was organised by the UCL EDI team in coordination with Thinking Black, a social enterprise empowering a new generation of young Black British voices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering ECR Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This UCL Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Festival was organised by the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering where the project PI Prof Marianna Obrist is Deputy Director for Digital Health. This is a unique networking event for ECRs involving oral and poster presentations, keynote talks, and parallel workshops. It covers all areas of Healthcare Engineering, and involved Ceylan Besevli and Giada Brianza from the Smell Care project, representing the smell health challenges. Giada Brianza is also a IHE 'impact fellow'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/healthcare-engineering/events/2024/feb/ihe-early-career-researcher-festival-20... |
| Description | UK Ageing Research Funders' Forum Early Career Researchers' event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A full day event featuring speaker sessions, engaging talks, and poster presentations showcasing the latest ageing-related research from early career researchers. Dr Ceylan Besevli gave a 10 minute talk on the Smell Care project and engaged in the networking activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://dunhillmedical.org.uk/news/2025-uk-ageing-research-funders-forum-early-career-researchers-ev... |
| Description | UK Semiochemistry Network Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | update in the clinical session of the meeting |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | UK Semiochemistry Network Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The UK Semiochemistry Network is an interdisciplinary network of professionals with an interest in chemical communication and detection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://uksemiochemistry.com/the-next-meeting-3 |
| Description | Universal Chemosensory Testing Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The PI Prof Marianna Obrist was an invited speaker to this first international event 'Towards Universal Chemosensory Testing', hosted by the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a non-profit independent scientific institute located at the University City Science Center campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Monell Center is a leading institute in smell and taste research and being invited to present the I-smell research project at the event was of great international importance, as the event not only involved academics, clinicians but also decision makers from healthcare funders and insurance companies in the USA. The PI was accompanied by Duncan Boak, CEO of the Fifth Sense Charity supporting people with smell and taste disorders, and project partner on the I-smell project; both representing the UK perspective and leading research on digital smell training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://smellandtastetestingforall.monell.org/program/ |