By nickbild

We usually associate sights and sounds with memories, but the sense of smell is actually the most strongly linked to memory and emotion. So if it feels like your photo album or home video collection is missing something, as strange as it may seem, scents could be the missing factor. Maybe all those old attempts to build a Smell-O-Vision weren’t so wacky after all, huh?

Researchers from MIT Media Lab and Harvard University are certainly hoping not, at least. They have developed what they call The Anemoia Device. It uses generative AI to extract relevant information from a photograph, then create a custom fragrance that is intended to complement it, whether that is to trigger feelings of nostalgia or other emotions.

The name comes from the word anemoia, meaning nostalgia for a time you never actually lived. That idea sits at the heart of the project: instead of simply recreating memories, the system fabricates entirely new ones through the combination of image analysis, narrative generation, and scent creation. The device does not aim for photorealism or persuasion. Instead, it encourages slow, reflective, and tactile engagement, turning digital prompting into a physical experience.

The process begins when the user inserts a printed photograph into the device. A Vision-Language Model analyzes the image, producing a descriptive caption. This caption is then handed off to a Large Language Model (LLM), which identifies a set of possible “subjects” in the scene — anything from a person to an object like a bicycle or tree. This classification determines what options appear next on the device’s three rotary dials, which serve as the core of its tangible interface.