Cross-Modal Affects Of Smell On The Real-Time Rendering Of Grass

Smell is a key human sense which can significantly effect our perception of an environment. Although, typically not as developed as our other senses, the presence of a pleasant or unpleasant smell can alter the way we view a scene. Such a cross-modal effect can be substantial with parts of a scene literally going unnoticed as the smell dominates our senses. This paper investigates the cross-modal affect on the perception of the real-time animation of a field of grass in the presence of the smell of cut-grass. Rendering the high level of detail of a close-up view of a field of grass is computationally very demanding. In the real world the smell of grass would be present, and especially strong if the grass had just been cut, for example in preparation for a sports event. By exploiting the cross-modal interaction between smell and visuals we are able to render a lower quality version of a field of grass at a reduced computational cost, without the viewer being aware of the quality difference compared to a high quality version. Copyright © 2009 by the Association for Computing Machinery Inc