Put the visual brain on hold for a second. Try to conjure up the smell of a Crayon box.

Something missing from the media landscape? Yeah - not that there weren't experiments in Smell-o-vision and (if memory serves) something similar back in the PC era - not to mention this gaming-era smell making device. (David Belasco made smell part of his naturalistic theatre productions in the early 20th century.)

It says something about the power of that sense that this fascinating chart of Crayola color evolution evoked smell first. (Click visual for large version; here for blog details.)

IBM, not to be outdone, has opined that as the planet gets smarter, computers will (also) gain the sense of smell.

Makes logical sense.

For all that, a box of Crayons still makes one heckuva time machine. Just open it & sniff, and see if you don't end up back in school. Mom, can I get the big box of 64, please?

--md