By Jessica VannEveryone who has read Roald Dhal’s book and seen the movies knows that Willy Wonka was a creative, eccentric innovator who came up with the most innovative candy. Some people say that David Edwards is the modern day Willy Wonka. Instead of candy he is creating innovative products such as smokable chocolate, inhalable alcohol, air-cleaning plants, a cell bag for carrying water in developing countries, and his most recent sending a scent through a message.David Edwards has not only invented the above concepts, but has also done scientific research and development into the advanced new drug delivery platforms focusing on infectious diseases in developing countries and the world. He studied chemical engineering and received his Bachelor of Science in 1983 from Michigan Technological University, followed by his Ph.D. in 1987 from Illinois Institute of Technology.After seven plus years of being a professor he left the academia world and started his own company, Advanced Inhalation Research, which is now part of Alkermes Inc. of Pulmatrix. He is also the founder of Medicine in Need (MEND), an international organization that develops new drugs and vaccines for poverty diseases such as tuberculosis. David is not only an engineer, but he is also a man of creativity who has written novels and has created an experimental art and design center called Le Laboratoire where artists and scientist can collaborate on projects and concepts.
On June 17th of this year, David’s company Vapor Communications sent the first of its kind, a scent message to his design center Le Laboratoire. Say what?!?! The scent message is called an oNote that is composed by an app called oSnap, which will be available for free from the Apple App store. Now you can only receive the message if you have an oPhone, which is a device that decodes the tagged oNotes and renders them into a smell. Want your own oPhone? Vapor Communications launched an Indiegogo campaign and will be available for pre-sale for $149 which is a discounted price from the expected sale price of $199.It will be interesting to see if they can meet their fundraising goal so make sure to stay tuned.Further Reading:
Inventor of the Month – Who is David Edwards?