Development and Study of Ezzence: A Modular Scent Wearable to Improve Wellbeing in Home Sleep Environments
Name
fpsyg-13-791768.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.58 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5db673ec6da3e3ec6bb7960ec1a693e3
Author(s)
Amores, Judith
Dotan, Mae
Maes, Pattie
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Citation
Amores, Judith, Dotan, Mae and Maes, Pattie. 2022. "Development and Study of Ezzence: A Modular Scent Wearable to Improve Wellbeing in Home Sleep Environments." Frontiers in Psychology, 13.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Ezzence is the first smartphone-controlled olfactometer designed for both day and night conditions. We discuss the design and technical implementation of Ezzence and report on a study to evaluate the feasibility of using the device in home-based sleep environments. The study results (N = 40) show that participants were satisfied with the device and found it easy to use. Furthermore, participants reported a significant improvement in sleep quality when using the device with scent in comparison to the control condition (p = 0.003), as well as better mood the following morning (p = 0.038) and shorter time to sleep onset (p = 0.008). The device is integrated with a wearable EEG and real-time sleep staging algorithm to release scent during specific sleep stages (N1, N2, N3, and REM), which is important for certain use cases (e.g., to study the effect of scent on REM dreams, or to improve memory consolidation with a re-exposure of scent during N2 and N3). Ezzence can be used for several applications, including those that require scent triggered day and night. They include targeted memory reactivation, longitudinal health treatments, therapy, and mental or physical exercises. Finally, this article proposes an interaction framework to understand relationships between scents and environments based on proxemic dimensions and passive or active interactions during sleep.
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/FPSYG.2022.791768
