Investigating the effects of two fragrances on comfort in the automotive context

What is this the impact of olfactory and visual factors on overall comfort? Can these factors have an effect on the perception of thermal comfort? These questions are particularly interesting in the context of a vehicle car cabin, since it leads to the possibility of visual or olfactory cues being used to maintain passenger thermal comfort at a lower energy cost. In this work, human subject trials (n=47) were performed in a temperature-controlled environ-ment varying air temperature, ambient light (none, yellow, blue) and scent (neutral, peppermint, orange & cinna-mon). Multiple linear regression shows olfactory factors to have a larger effect on overall comfort perception than visual factors. Either scent improved thermal perception in a slightly cold environment, while only peppermint im-proved thermal perception in a slightly warm environment. These results suggest that the use of visual and olfac-tory factors have the potential to increase car cabin comfort and / or improve the energy efficiency of the car cli-mate system.