These Guys Hacked an Air Freshener to Squirt Every Time They Got Retweeted

File this under: why not?

These guys hooked up an air freshener to a Twitter account via an Arduino controller. Every time a tweet they send gets retweeted, the air freshener emits a disgusting wonderful scent. They call it (drum roll please), "The Smell of Success" (rim shot).

The project grew out of the British design firm Mint Digital, which created a special program for recent graduates called The Foundry. Their four young recruits were asked to "Make something connected to the Internet that doesn't live on a screen." We think this air freshener counts.

I poke fun, but I actually like the project. It's another clever demonstration of what happens when you integrate the real world and the Internet through open hardware. We haven't quite figured out what useful things can be done with these kinds of integrations, but I'm not sure that matters. What we have is young people messing around to see what can be done. That's a good thing. Eventually someone will stumble on an application that feels necessary not just funny.