Smith scrolls to a picture of oranges. He clicks on them. My hosts relax in their chairs, looking immensely relieved. But the orange peel is just the beginning, a humble hors d'oeuvre. Marc Canter, sometimes known as the father of multimedia, joins us to serve the multiscented main course.
Canter is a big man with a deep voice and a brooding presence.
He's now CEO of a startup called Broadband Mechanics, developing applications in anticipation of the era of true high-speed Internet access. If Canter has his way, broadband is going to be odor-enabled, and his company will be producing scent demos synchronized with movies, videos, and music. Canter initiates a sequence of movie clips, and in a window on the screen we're transported to Oz. Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow are venturing into the forest, and its trees are not merely visible but sniffable. A cedar fragrance emerges from the little black box beside the computer.