It seems that we are making hasty steps towards the future world of Star Trek and other Sci-Fi movies depicting a highly technologized life. Harvard University professor David Edwards, along with a team of students, created an iPhone app called oSnap that can take photos and send accompanying scents to the recipient.

According to Yahoo News, the app was revealed to the public June 17, at the Museum of Natural History in New York.

How does the smell app work

If you are a programmer or an app developer your head may start to hurt as you would think how it would be possible to send smells through an electronic device. Well, the Harvard professor and his students created a special device that is basically an Instagram-like automatic camera with which the user can snap photos of the object they wish to send.

After the photo is taken, a tagging menu appears with a selection of scent notes for the user to choose from, such as butter, cocoa beans, baguette or red wine. Up to eight different scents can be combined to give the recipient the full picture of a meal or other experience. The photo and its corresponding scent tags are then messaged to the recipient, who uses a scent-transmitting machine called an oPhone to “receive” the smell.

The team envisions the device becoming commonplace in restaurants, coffee shops and other places where explaining complex smells and flavors can be difficult. Edwards suggested that baristas could use the oPhone to give customers a sense of a product before buying.