Smell Clock

Shenzhen Adventure Day 30

The smell clock is a device I built for the Shenzhen manufacturing bootcamp. While we were there, we had a challenge to build a prototype on a tight budget. The assignment was to build something that could denote the passage of time.

I decided, while walking around the market, that these little bottle top humidifiers were really cool:

So I knew I had to incorporate them. I walked around the market scoping out prices and couldn’t find them for a good deal. Just when I was about to give up, I found them at a price I could afford – if I recall it was a few dollars a piece, but I needed a lot.

I laser cut a case for each humidifier out of acrylic and opened up each humidifier and attached a wire to trigger the toggle switch.

In order for it to look nice, I needed some good looking bottles, so I hit the grocery store, where I found:

A bicycle built from toothpaste.

I didn’t find any nice bottles, so I ended up using some ugly ones.

The design uses 4x4 grid of individually controllable humidifiers connected to an arduino mega. Each of the bottle is filled with different fragrances.

I ended up running into trouble with the plastic case, so I cut a new one from wood.

And the finished product: