Short Tutorial/FAQ – How Will the Internet of Senses Work?

Question: I'm fascinated by the prospect of the Internet of Senses. What will this technology do?

Answer: Today's digital technology mainly uses the two senses of sight and sound. But with the technological advances in extended reality (XR) applications and 5G/6G, it's plausible that in the not-too-distant. future, we'll be able to feel, taste, and smell digital objects in a way that's nearly identical to physical experiences.

The Swedish telecom giant Ericsson championed the term of the Internet of Senses (IoS). With the expanding ability of digital technologies to mimic the five human senses, the IoS envisions a world where the digital and physical merge into one another. Enthusiasts predict this technology will become available in the next couple of decades.

IoS will augment our senses beyond the boundaries of our bodies, enabling us to blend multisensory digital experiences with our local surroundings and interact with remote people, devices, and robots as if they were right beside us. Lightweight and advanced AR glasses and contact lenses will allow users to project digital objects into physical spaces with incredible realism. Touch will also become more amplified with advanced forms of wearables that replicate the sense of weight and motion in digital objects. Similarly, early-stage prototypes exist that replicate the senses of taste and smell. For example, the Norimaki Synthesizer, designed by researchers from Meiji University in Japan, artificially recreates any flavor on a user's tongue.