Exploring Olfactory Illusion of Virtual Objects Using Fewer Odor Sources

Existing olfactory displays in Virtual Reality rely on one-to-one scent delivery strategies, requiring dedicated odor sources for each virtual object and resulting in complex implementations.We propose applying olfactory illusion to enable a single scent material to be perceived as multiple objects in a VR environment.Our approach utilizes three scent agents to represent six virtual objects through one-to-two olfactory illusion pairings.We conducted a user experiment to validate effectiveness.Results demonstrate that 75% of olfactory illusion pairings achieved successful dual object perception, with 83.3% of objects showing acceptable performance compared to authentic materials.Our findings reveal key factors affecting olfactory illusion effectiveness and provide design strategies for further enhancing olfactory illusion performance.