Fancy some virtual food?
From an ocean’s depth to a distant planet’s surface, we can immerse themselves in many different experiences with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). But taste? Scientists at The Ohio State University (OSU) in the United States invented a device called e-Taste that lets you taste things without actually eating them. They presented their cutting-edge innovation in the journal ‘Science Advances’.
Taste meets VR
The gadget looks like a small cube that measures about 15 mm on each side. It contains chemical sensors and wireless dispensers that capture and transmit taste data remotely in just seconds. Users can experience the five main taste categories: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. “Taste and smell are greatly related to human emotion and memory,” co-author Jinghua Li, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at OSU, told ‘Popular Science’. “So our sensor has to learn to capture, control, and store all that information.” e-Taste is fastened to a thin plastic strip that you hold between your teeth, with the cube hanging outside. When the cube’s sensors detect a food object in the virtual environment, e-Taste releases chemicals that simulate the five different tastes. You get the full taste experience – without needing to really eat anything. The cube has tiny refillable liquid chemical packs to generate the specific tastes. “The chemical dimension in the current VR and AR realm is relatively underrepresented, especially when we talk about olfaction and gustation,” explained Li in a OSU news release. “It’s a gap that needs to be filled and we’ve developed that with this next-generation system.” A team of scientists tested the e-Taste system on volunteers. They were able to distinguish between different sour taste profile intensities in the liquids generated by the device with an overall accuracy rate of about 70 %. In another trial, they were asked to distinguish between flavours mimicking lemonade, cake, fried egg, fish soup and coffee. They did so with nearly 87 % accuracy. The mixed outcomes aren’t surprising, given that taste is inherently subjective and can change from one moment to the next. The study says that the device could benefit those with traumatic brain injuries or long COVID who have lost their sense of taste.
Add a little virtual flavour to life
e-Taste still has room for improvement. It can’t replicate texture or temperature, and it depends on a small number of chemicals that don’t completely capture the intricacies of real-life flavours. Perhaps even more importantly, will the public embrace this ‘electronic tongue’ in their day-to-day living? “This will help people connect in virtual spaces in never-before-seen ways,” concluded Li. “This concept is here and it is a good first step to becoming a small part of the metaverse.”
Keywords
food, flavour, virtual reality, VR, augmented reality, AR, taste, e-Taste