Just how emmersive will it get?

That is the question that I was asking myself the other evening as I was standing on a small hill looking through the palm trees to the sight and sound of the waves rolling in, the gulls calling as they flew over head and in the near distance the faint cracking of a camp fire. I know that the on the near horizon there is talk of SL HD and that will improve the visual for sure, great.

So I began to look around the net for some insights and the first that I came across was from Digicents blog: -

Smell reaches out into a new, visceral dimension, transporting viewers, gamers, and music fans into the realm of the senses. Atmosphere, mood, emotion and characters can all be enhanced with scent.
The Power of Scent…
o makes content extremely immersive and compelling
o creates mood, such as foreshadowing or ambiance
o intensifies emotions, such as fear or love
o establishes place and season
o helps develop characters
o gives a heightened sense of reality

How will this work, well according to Wikipedia: -

The prototype connected to a personal computer via USB or serial port and was designed to emit a smell when a user visited a web site or opened an email. The device contained a cartridge with 128 "primary odors," which could be mixed to replicate natural and man-made odors. DigiScents had indexed thousands of common odors, which could be coded, digitized, and embedded into web pages or email

So in the near furure in SL one evening soon, I may be standing on a small hill looking through the palm trees to the sight and sound of the waves rolling in, gulls calling as they fly over head, and in the near distance hearing the faint cracking of a camp fire, while at the same time taking in the smells of the ocean, cant wait.

Then the other day I saw something that blew me away, Touchable Holography, what is that, follow this link to core77, and a CNN demonstration, now lets start getting getting ready for the real holodeck!!!!

Comments welcome, Skipper