Smells are strongly tied to memories, but they tend to be fleeting (at least the good smells) and difficult to replicate without the item from which it emanates. What I would like to have is a handheld device with a receptor that captures a scent, but also has the ability to “print” the scent onto a strip of paper.
When I think about the receptor that would best capture scent, I think of hair. Anyone with long enough hair knows its proclivity to retain smells. So a tassel-like receptor made up of very fine strands of sensors with the ability to recognize and capture the molecules that make up a particular smell. This analog information collected could be turned into data that can be stored by a computer through interpreting the molecular conglomeration and recording the pattern. Once captured, the scent can be named and then printed onto a strip of paper, using the stored molecular pattern as a guide for a reserve of raw materials contained in the device.
The physical interface of the device would include a large screen with an onscreen keyboard that appears for naming and searching the reserve of your scent library. Aside from an On/Off button, other functions (“collect scent” and “print scent”) would be controlled through the prompts on the screen. Inside of the unit there is a space for a small cassette of rolled paper, vials of the molecular substrates used to create the scents and mechanics of the printing system, which I imagine to be like an inkjet printer.
Intro to Physical Computing 