'Wearable' Deodorant? Google Working on 'Odor Removing Device'

Deodorant marketers have a new frenemy: Google is working on a digital, wearable, socially enabled deodorant device. Google Technology Holdings was awarded a patent last week for an "odor removal device" that includes an activity sensor to help predict when you'll get body odor, an automatic fragrance emitter to combat it and a system that tracks people in your social networks so you can avoid them when you smell bad. "The route-suggesting portion may provide an alternate route to travel such that the predicted odor may not offend others that are socially connected to the user and that travel the same routes as the user," according to the patent abstract. Google Spritz -- just wild conjecture at a possible name -- might either pre-emptively destroy odor or use Google Maps and/or your Android device to prevent any social fallout from it. Presumably, the Google Self-Driving Car could someday prevent you from heading to work or the home of a Google+ acquaintance under malodorous conditions. New York Daily News, which first reported the patent, noted that Google had filed for it in 2012, and that patents are frequently awarded for products that never see the light of day. So the analog deodorant industry may have no need to worry. However, it does raise the question of whether Google's aggressive efforts to stock up on packaged-goods marketing talent in recent years is just about selling advertising or has deeper implications.

'Wearable' Deodorant? Google Working on 'Odor Removing Device'

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