- Dr Jenny Tillotson, Central St Martins College of Art and Design
This case study looks at two linked AHRC awards led by Dr Jenny Tillotson of Central St Martins College of Art and Design. The first award was a small grant for £5000 from 2000-03 and the second a £52,488 Innovation Award from 2004-05.
The sense of smell is our most ancient and primitive sense. We start our lives by smell-bonding with our mothers and we continue by forming romantic attachments with partners whose body aroma re-echoes this early, primal, olfactory experience. Aromas can also affect our moods and feelings. These two AHRC awards invent a new science of aroma delivery focussing on smell and the impact it has on health and wellbeing.
The initial project, Scentient Beings, explored implanting smell technology into the multi-sensorial clothing, developing a living dress as a sensitive 'Smart Second Skin'.
The dress mimics the body's circulation system, the sense and scent 
glands. The dress's veins and arteries flow freely as the new interactive fabric emits a selection of scents depending on your mood. It has its own nervous system, which allows the wearer to control the emotional wellbeing of the garment. The purpose of the dress is to help people feel better by providing a way of 'refreshing' their smell throughout the day, without having to carry a perfume bottle, in addition it could bring relief to the estimated 10 percent of the population suffering from allergic reactions caused by applying perfume directly to the skin.
The second AHRC award, e.Scent is a small badge that protects the user by targeting small dose of insect repellent via a noise activated sensor which is tuned to recognise the specific sound of a mosquito. The technology, protected by global patent, can also be embedded in smart fabrics to deliver anti-malarial chemicals.
Dr Tillotson collaborated with Professor Andreas Manz, Head of Institute of Analytical Sciences and together they founded the start up company, Sensory Design & Technology Ltd.
Future outputs- There is already commercial interest in this research from Venture Capital and a Life Science and Nano-technology company.