In the future, we could huff food blogs and snort stinky Twitter feeds straight into our sinuses.

Okay, I'll admit that's a highly exaggerated interpretation of new research by Kasun Karunanayaka, a senior research fellow at the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia, and his team. They've designed a concept for smelling digital content—like restaurant menu items or a florist's rose bouquet—using electrical stimulation directly up your nostrils.

We've seen high-tech prototypes in the world of multisensory technology before: From molecule mixes that evoke the smell of New York in virtual reality, to "programmable" scent cartridges released during a movie, to gas masks for smelling sex while watching porn in VR. But most of these involve a chemical mix to make the scent. Instead of physical scent-mixing, Karunanayaka's smellable internet involves sticking electrodes up your nose, to touch and stimulate neurons deep inside your nasal passages.