ATIC12/Getty Images/iStockphoto Google's latest patent is for a device that can eliminate body odor. 
 
 In the future you might be able to skip the deodorant stick after a trip to the gym because Google just got a patent for a new odor removing wearable. 
 
 The odor removing device would have an activity sensor that can detect physical activity of its user and emits a fragrance to combat any offending odors. 
 
 US Patent and Trademark Office The product would look like a small fan that can be worn on the hip of neck line of a t-shirt. US Patent and Trademark Office Google has filed a patent for a web-connected air freshener to emit a fragrance to mask offending odors caused by physical activity. Previous Next 
 
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 The product would look like a small, portable fan that can be attached to the waistline or the neckline of a shirt. 
 
 Google's device would not only avoid bad odors, but it would also help users avoid friends and coworkers. The device would be web-connected and linked to the user's social networks to detect if any friends or coworkers are nearby. If the device detects any contacts, it would send a map of the area to the user's phone so they can take a different route. 
 
 The patent was first filed in 2012, but it was granted by the United State Patent and Trademark Office on Feb. 10, 2015. 
 
 It has not been confirmed if Google will actually manufacture this device, but some patents don't actually get materialized into functional consumer products. 
 
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 It's hard to say what effect all the fitness wearables coming to market will have, but one of the consequences just might be a global rise in body odor from all that extra exercise. If that's the case, Google may be ready with a wearable odor-sensing gizmo it described in a patent issued Tuesday by the US Patent and Trademark Office. 
 
 If the device, which comes with an activity sensor, finds that you're smelly, it shoots a fragrance or deodorizer at you. It plugs in to your social network to help steer you clear of any friends who might be in the vicinity (just in case the fragrance wasn't strong enough, apparently). 
 
 "When a user is wearing the fragrance emission device and begins to exert himself or herself, an activity module within the device may detect the physical exertion," reads the patent, colorfully titled Patent No. 8,950,238. "The activity module may detect a rise in sweat levels, an increase in body odor or body temperature, or any other parameter that may indicate the user is exercising or otherwise exerting themself (sic)." 
 
 Once the activity module knew you were starting to get whiffy, it would shoot out its neutralizer. Of course, you could easily override the system if you didn't want to get blasted with Eau de Google. 
 
 Far and away, the strangest part of the "fragrance emission device" has to do with the way it would connect to your social-media channels and warn you when friends were around and you weren't smelling your freshest. It would then provide an alternative route you could take to avoid your peeps while you got to a shower. According to the patent: 
 
 James Martin/CNET 
 
 "In some cases, the device may learn that some of the user's social contacts...are in the same area as the user and therefore may possibly meet the user within the area or on a similar route that the user is likely to take. However, to avoid subjecting the social contacts to the odor, the device may include a route-suggesting portion that can notify the user that his contacts are in the area. The route-suggesting portion may additionally provide an alternate route for the user to take to increase the chances of avoiding an unpleasant odorous meeting with his social contacts." 
 
 According to a report in Quartz, the patent came by way of Motorola Mobility, a company acquired by Google in 2011 largely for its approximately 24,500 patents. Examining this particular one, I have to think it might have been No. 24,499 on the list. 
 
 Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– Google is considering what might be termed a digital deodorant. The company has obtained a patent for a device that would counteract your own BO and even keep you away from friends when you're at your smelliest, the New York Daily News reports. The "odor removing device," as the patent terms it, would theoretically note when you're giving off an odor or exerting yourself; it could then send out a pleasant fragrance to cover up your own. It could also be linked to your social networks so that it could determine whether any friends were nearby; that way, you could steer around them to minimize embarrassment. It could even potentially point you in the right direction, CNET reports: The "fragrance emission device" might offer, in the patent's words, "an alternate route for the user to take to increase the chances of avoiding an unpleasant odorous meeting with his social contacts." The thing would look a bit like a portable fan, the Daily News notes, and it would attach to your collar or the waistline of your clothes. The patent application was made in 2012 and granted this week, but an application doesn't mean Google will actually go forward with the product, the Daily News observes. If it does, perhaps the gadgetry will reduce the 20% of men who don't use deodorant.