Kaorium 香氛体验装置 by Toshiharu Kurisu - Scentmatic

Kaorium 香氛体验装置 by Toshiharu Kurisu - Scentmatic is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 A' Design Award 银奖 in 界面、交互与用户体验设计 Competition Category.

银界面· 2025

Kaorium 香氛体验装置

by Toshiharu Kurisu - Scentmatic

Client: Scentmatic Inc.

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 界面 Category

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The Design

About Kaorium 香氛体验装置

这款互动标识系统通过融合香氛与语言，为体验和享受香氛提供了全新方式。系统采用AI驱动技术Kaorium将香氛特征可视化，让用户深入探索个人对气味的感知，发现与其印象产生共鸣的描述性词汇，从而找到与个人感受完美契合的香氛。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Kaorium 香氛体验装置是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Kaorium 香氛体验装置将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Kaorium 香氛体验装置是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: This interactive signage uses AI to put scents into words and visualize the characteristics of each scent, offering new ways to encounter and enjoy scents.
To allow users to focus on the images evoked by the scent and words, visual elements are kept to a minimum, with text floating up on the tabletop for a simple UI.
Finally, the desired scent is presented in a scene like a "babbling brook of fresh greenery," encouraging emotional engagement.
Dimensions & Packaging: External dimensions W1083.5 × D718 × H850 mm
Weight 80kg

Using RFID, this new sensory experience combines scent and words, and the physical and digital, creating easy-to-understand and friendly interactions.
Tags: Kaorium, AI, fragrance, signage, device
Production Technology: Everyone perceives scents differently.
Kaorium puts these diverse perceptions into words and presents them, but it wants to respect "how the user themselves felt" and not unilaterally limit its interpretation.
With cognitive diversity gaining attention in the context of education and business, Kaorium believes it can contribute to fostering a culture of respect and mutual acceptance of differences in how people perceive scents.
Design Challenge: When the prototype was actually completed, it became clear that it would be difficult to elevate the scent into a valuable experience simply by describing it in words.
Rather than assigning a fragrance professional, they took a more consumer-oriented approach, pursuing what consumers "want" and collaborated with the sake, sports, and education sectors to improve social and experiential value.
Research: In order to verify the value of KAORIUM from a neuroscience perspective, joint research was conducted with the University of Tokyo.
In a demonstration experiment at a fragrance shop, the entrance rate increased by 139% and the purchase rate increased by 287% compared to before the introduction.
The use of KAORIUM overseas is also increasing, including an exhibition at the London Design Festival 2023 and its introduction at The Fragrance Shop, the largest in the UK.
Inspiration: This project began with the vision of "enriching people's sensibilities and senses through fragrance."
Fragrances enrich our lives, but scents are vague and difficult to grasp, and each person perceives them differently.
For many people, it is difficult to choose a scent that suits them from the vast selection available, so we thought that "words" would be the key to creating an experience that allows many people, including beginners, to enjoy scents.
Project Duration: The project started in Japan in November 2019. The extrasensory experience of scent that Kaorium brings can be applied to various fields such as education, food and drink, art and entertainment, and shopping. Currently, we are developing tools for sensory education, food and drink experiences, and purchasing experiences for brick-and-mortar retail stores. We are researching further possibilities for use.
Operation Flow: Using natural language processing, Kaorium can replace scents with simpler expressions that beginners can understand, such as "soft," "soapy," and "clean."
Existing methods to support product selection include "diagnostic content," which suggests products that suit users by answering questions in a questionnaire, but KAORIUM provides an experience that allows users to actually smell different scents and delve deeper into how they feel, creating a more satisfying experience.
Patents: Trademark (2023) 2022-082558 SCENTMATIC.Inc
Team Members: producer/director: Toshiharu Kurisu
designer: Yoshiyuki Habashima
Image Credits: Image #1: SCENTMATIC.Inc, Kaorium, 2025.
Image #2: SCENTMATIC.Inc, Kaorium, 2025.
Image #3: SCENTMATIC.Inc, Kaorium, 2025.
Image #4: SCENTMATIC.Inc, Kaorium, 2025.
Image #5: SCENTMATIC.Inc, Kaorium, 2025.