According to scientists, all aromas that humans can perceive can be divided in 10 basic smells (primary smells). Do you want to know which are they?
One of the most prestigious magazines in the world completed an study where 144 different smells were analyzed. These scents were extracted from an “Olfactive atlas”. The researchers employed a computarized procedure called “non-negative matrix factorization” to gradually reduce the smells into their most basic essence. Therefore they reduced all these 144 smells into 10 categories or primary smells.
According to this result any natural smell can be generated by mixing some of these categories… This study can open the door to the basics of generating any smell in the future…
Current smell categories
Primary smells are those which can generate all the rest. Based on these 10 primary smells any aroma can be reproduced, generating all the smells that can be smelled in the real world, from sutile smells to the most powerful smells.
WHICH ARE ALL THESE 10 PRIMARY SMELLS?
The 10 primary smells are the following:
Floral: Example -> flowers of fragances (which are basically made of floral notes).
Woody: Pines or freshly cut grass…
Fruity: Non-citric fruits smell
Ethereal: Cleaning products such bleach or ammonia
Pepperminty: Mint, eucalyptus or alcanfor.
Sweet: Candies, vanilla or chocolate…
Smoky or burning: Popcorn or hot dogs but also burning rubber, gunpowder or burning car oil…
Citric: Lemon or orange scent…
Putrid: Rotten meat or sour milk.
Acre or musty: Moldy, humidity…
Rotten and musty can be considered as repugnant, in comparison with all the rest, but all they are present in the real world…
As expected for researchers, the primary smells are closely related with the sense of taste. Actually, the scientists suggest that smell receptors in your nose are designed to help our brain to identify the good foods that we need for a healthy nutrition and reject the repugnant smells that could damage our body…
In Olorama Digital Scent Technology we count with all this scents… Unfortunately today still primary smells can’t be mixed to get realistic “real world smells” but we will be the first to get this when researchers find how to do so…!
