Since man first tuned in his television, there's almost no sensory part of the television experience he's left untouched. From Surround Sound to 3D glasses, we've been determined to put every sensory element into play... with just one exception.
Now Japanese scientists have made that final leap and brought us a 'smelling screen'.
Demonstrated at the IEEE Virtual Reality conference in Orlando, Florida last month (what do you mean you weren't there?), Phys Org report that the device will make smells appear to come from the exact spot on any LCD screen that is displaying the image of a food item.
Now, Huffington Post UK Lifestyle can't help recalling past attempts at smell-o-vision, which have ranged from the imaginatively titled Aroma-Rama, which (according to Filmsite.org) pumped smells into cinemas via air conditioning, to Smell-O-Vision, the technology that transmitted scent molecules into viewers' home via their television sets, as reported by the BBC on April Fool's Day in 1965.
While we hope that you smelled the appropriate rat in that last sentence, it would seem the smelling screen isn't in fact a hoax.
According to a paper by Japanese scientists Haruka Matsukura, Tatsuhiro Yoneda and Hiroshi Ishida from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology published on PubMed.gov, the scientists' display unit wafts smells via four fans that allow the airflow to be directed towards the user as though from a certain position on the screen.
According to their statement, viewers will not even feel the breeze, furthering enhancing the sense that the smell is coming directly from the picture.
But would you want your television screen to be surrounded by fans?
According to the scientists: "Most users do not immediately notice the odor presentation mechanism of the proposed olfactory display system because the airflow and perceived odor come from the display screen rather than the fans."
Well, perhaps not when you're talking traditional televisions. But what what about the latest 201inch screen?
Would you try this new television? Let us know in the comments below.
Meanwhile, here are some more incredible technologies we'd like to see rolled out this year!