If you’ve ever wished to taste the food from a cooking show on screen, researchers at City University of Hong Kong might have found a solution.
They’ve developed a lickable VR device that can simulate “adjustable taste” experiences, allowing users to experience the sensation of taste while immersed in virtual reality.
In the future, these innovative devices could make food shows, such as The Great British Bake Off, even more immersive by allowing viewers to taste the dishes alongside hosts like Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
The “lollipop-shaped taste interfacing systems” are designed to produce up to nine distinct flavors, including sugar, salt, citric acid, cherry, passion fruit, green tea, milk, durian, and grapefruit.
These flavors are created using food-grade flavor chemicals stored in pouches of agarose gel, a substance derived from red algae. When a voltage is applied, the chemicals rise to the surface of the gel, mixing with saliva on the tongue to simulate taste.
As virtual and mixed reality continue to evolve, researchers are exploring new ways to enhance immersion in virtual worlds. While sight, sound, and touch have already been simulated using haptic equipment, and even smell can be recreated with Smell-O-Vision-like devices, taste remains one of the most challenging senses to replicate in virtual environments.
In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Yiming Liu and their team highlighted the importance of taste alongside visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory sensations in shaping human experiences, both physiologically and psychologically. However, they noted that taste-generating technologies in VR are still in their early stages.
To address this, the researchers developed a device resembling a plastic lollipop with metal electrodes placed around its edge. These electrodes hold packages of agarose gel infused with flavor chemicals, creating a novel way to simulate taste in virtual reality.
The gel’s unique properties ensure that when no current is applied, the device remains tasteless, even when licked. However, when a current is introduced, the process of iontophoresis causes the flavor chemicals to rise to the surface of the gel. As a result, when someone licks the device, they can taste the simulated flavor.
By increasing the current, more flavor chemicals are pushed to the surface, intensifying the taste. With the ability to adjust the voltage applied to each of the nine flavor options, the device can recreate a wide variety of tastes.
The researchers also created versions of the VR lollipop with only two or five flavor gels, which produced stronger tastes but at the expense of versatility.
To maintain portability, the researchers kept the device lightweight—despite its gel contents, the lollipop weighs just 15g, roughly the same as an AAA battery.
The researchers explain that their study presents “a set of intelligent and portable lollipop-shaped taste interfacing systems” that offer two to nine taste options, designed to create an adjustable taste experience in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality environments.
To enhance the sensory experience, the paper also explores pairing the lollipop with a seven-channel smell simulator. This device uses paraffin wax strips to release scents, simulating smells that correspond to what the user sees in VR. Combining taste and smell simulations brings the experience closer to the real act of eating.
In their paper, the scientists propose three key potential uses for the device:
- Medical gustation assessment: A virtual equivalent of an eye test, allowing for remote taste testing for health assessments.
- Remote shopping: The device could allow users to taste food products virtually before making a purchase.
- Mixed reality applications: For example, a child could explore the flavors of various foods in a virtual environment, expanding the possibilities for interactive learning.
The researchers initially considered alternative methods for simulating flavor, such as electrostimulation, which involves applying a current directly to the tongue to induce a taste sensation.
Previous studies have demonstrated that low-level electrical currents, when applied to cutlery or chopsticks, can enhance the perception of saltiness in food, making it taste saltier than it actually is.
However, they ultimately chose the gel-based approach for its precision and portability in creating a customizable and adjustable taste experience.
The main limitation of this method is that the gels deplete relatively quickly. According to the researchers, the digital lollipop can be used for about an hour before the flavor-infused gels shrink to the point of needing replacement.
While the current selection of flavors is limited, the researchers plan to explore ways of expanding the number of available flavor channels and enhancing the device’s durability for longer usage.
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