Scratch and Sniff Education?

What does it mean to lack certain senses in the virtual environment?  Thinking of smell, it led me to the inevitable: scratch and sniff technology.  

I discovered a couple of examples where this technology was used for educational purposes.  In 1987, the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company sent scratch and sniff cards to customers to teach about natural gas leaks.  On the back of the brochure was a drawing of a red flame and the words: ''Scratch this flame with your fingernail. Sniff it. Let your family sniff it and be sure everyone recognizes the odor.''  Unfortunately, the smell penetrated the envelopes without ever being scratched, leading to a lot of false alarms by customers. 

In Northern Ireland, there was a card distributed by police that smelled like cannabis.  It came with other telltale signs of what to look for with marijuana grow-ops, in order to get the public to help identify these operations. 

London's Odette Toilette is a "purveyor of olfactory adventures," offering "adventures which range from education and communication workshops for groups in the fragrance industry, through to corporate entertainment for people who want to offer their team or clients something unusual." 

Then, there was the 1960 Scent of Mystery which tried to incorporate aromas into theatres with "Smell-O-Vision."  It released 30 different scents in the air in conjunction with the movie.   Needless to say, it didn't make it as a part of our ongoing movie experience. 

These experiments with smell do bring up interesting questions around the issue of senses and how they connect to learning in the virtual environment.  Are there ways online educators can capture and capitalize on students' senses in order to create increased engagement and learning?