Visual Olfactive Design Space for Fragrance Composition Creation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The fragrance and flavor creation process is time-consuming and wasteful, with subjective communication barriers between perfumers/flavorists and customers, and existing tools lack intuitive and sustainable methods for iterative design and customer involvement.
Innovation Solution
A computer terminal with a processor, database connection, and output device that uses pictograms to represent ingredients' olfactive contributions in an olfactive design space, allowing users to select, adjust, and visualize fragrance or flavor compositions, facilitating intuitive creation and customer interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional spreadsheet-based ingredient selection is used, then perfumers can work with detailed ingredient data, but the interface is impenetrable to non-experts and creates communication barriers with customers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional spreadsheet interface with a visual canvas that copies and transforms ingredient information into pictogram representations. Instead of displaying raw data in spreadsheet format, the system creates a visual copy using pictograms whose sizes correspond to olfactive contributions, making the interface accessible to non-experts while preserving all necessary ingredient information for professional use.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs visual characteristics including color coding and size variations of pictograms to represent different ingredients and their olfactive contributions. This visual encoding transforms abstract ingredient data into intuitive graphical representations that can be easily understood by both experts and non-experts, eliminating communication barriers.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple iterations of recipe adjustment are performed, then complex creations can be achieved, but the process becomes time-consuming and wasteful of valuable ingredients
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a virtual design space where perfumers can visually assemble and adjust ingredient combinations before actual physical mixing occurs. The system allows virtual iteration and adjustment of recipe complexity using pictogram manipulation, so that multiple design iterations can be explored digitally without consuming additional physical ingredients or requiring repeated physical mixing and smelling cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of physical ingredient mixing and manual olfactive assessment with a digital visual system. The computer terminal with display interface substitutes the physical mixing apparatus and human sensory evaluation, allowing complex fragrance creations to be designed and optimized visually before physical production, thereby reducing time loss in iterative design.
3Adaptability or versatility
If customers are closely involved in the co-creation process, then trust and understanding are built, but the subjective nomenclature creates barriers to understanding
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a shared visual language using pictograms that both perfumers and customers can understand. Instead of relying on subjective olfactive terminology that customers may not understand, the system uses visual copies of ingredient representations with size-proportional olfactive contributions, creating a common ground for co-creation that builds trust and understanding without communication barriers.
4Manufacturing precision
If detailed ingredient quantities are tracked, then precise compositions can be produced, but the spreadsheet format is difficult for non-experts to understand
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses visual encoding where pictogram sizes represent olfactive contributions and colors differentiate ingredient types or families. This visual representation maintains precise tracking of ingredient quantities through the digital system while presenting the information in an intuitively understandable format for non-experts, eliminating the need for them to interpret spreadsheet data.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer terminal arranged to allow a user to produce a fragrance or flavour composition, the terminal comprising a processor, a database connection to a database storing ingredients, an output connection to an output device configured to produce a sample of the composition, a display and a user input means; wherein the processor is configured to: accept selection via the user input means of ingredients from the database; add pictograms representing the selected ingredients to an olfactive design space on the display, wherein the size of the pictogram for each selected ingredient represents that selected ingredient's olfactive contribution to the composition; convert for each selected ingredient, its olfactive contribution to a corresponding quantity of the ingredient; and, when the user requests a sample of the composition via the input means, to instruct the output device to dispense the corresponding quantity of the selected ingredients.