Yaniv Mama keeps a pot full of cigarette butts right under my nose.
"I assume you don't like it?" He watches me wince and says, "I presume you don't like the odour?"
He waved a small, white stick at me. "Now, smell the pot. What do you smell?"
No matter how close I get to the pot of butts, the cigarette smell has vanished.
This is due to technology from Israeli company Moodify. The technique activates receptors in the olfactory bulbs, which is the part of your brain that processes smell.
"It turns out smell has its own spectrum [like visible light spectrum] and if you spread odour molecules equally over it, you get a Malodour Control effect without having an unpleasant mix of bad smell and cheap fragrance," Mr Mama, founder and chief technology officer, says.
Moodify offers a pendant that can hang near a litter box to get rid of any unpleasant odors.
"We realized in Israel that apartments are often small and rented. This means there is less space outside so litter is in the living rooms," said Mr Mama.
It is not surprising that more people pay more attention to the smell of their homes as they work from home.
The White Company in the UK has noticed a rise in sales of scented candles. It says this is due to more home-based work.
Chrissie Rucker, founder and CEO of The White Company, says that scent is a very personal thing.
The right scent can make the environment more enjoyable and boost your brain.
Mark Moss heads the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University. He studied the effects of essential oils on performance. He discovered that rosemary aromas can improve memory.
"I also have done work that shows the benefits of peppermint and sage on cognition.
"Lavanden, in comparison, tends to slow down reaction times and impair memory. He says that research has shown that it can be used to reduce anxiety and pre-treatment in medical and dental situations.
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Dr Moss emphasizes the importance of smell receptors in the brain.
"The projections of the olfactory bulb to more structures in brain are more extensive than those of vision and hearing. This is a testament to how crucial it has been in our evolution.
"Much of the effect of smells on our behaviour is unconscious. Low-level smells are the least processed information. We don't even actively process it. He says that we only consciously process strong smells.
Moodify is a company that has been developing scents for people to enhance their performance, improve their wellbeing, and increase safety. It was founded on over ten years of research at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science.
The Weizmann Institute discovered that paratroopers emit a fear-like smell before they jump. Scientists have been able to reproduce that smell and it may help people be more alert.
Although there is no identifiable smell of fear, the olfactory senses can detect volatile compounds in sweat that are associated with stressful situations.
Scientists are focusing on those molecules.
Mr Mama says that it could give you better cognitive performance and psychological performance.
Dr Moss believes there's more to be learned about the effects of smells on our bodies.
He says that smell is perhaps the most poorly understood sense of all, as it was evolutionarily surpassed by sight and audition in terms human behaviour."
It has been viewed as a remnant of our evolutionary past, rather than something of great value. It is only when it is lost, that it becomes important. It interacts with the brain in a complex way."
Klio Maniati, a chemical engineering and perfumer who was a consultant to Moodify, says that losing the sense of smell can cause severe distress.
"Smell is the first sense a baby learns right after birth. This is how it connects with its surroundings. She says that smell helps us to recognize our caregivers in the earliest stages of our lives and then later we use it to communicate with others."
People who have lost their senses of smell report fear of socialization. They are afraid of being able to smell bad, and they avoid eating at restaurants because they don't like the food. They are less likely to make close connections with others.
Yaniv Mama, a researcher at the lab, says that the future is bright for creating scents that enhance our lives.
He predicts that "tailor-made scents, such as freshly baked bread, cut grass, or your favorite scented candle, could all be sent via an application or TV screen."
