Scientists have developed a VR device that allows you to taste food through your TV during cooking shows such as The Great British Bake Off
If you’ve ever watched a cooking show and wished you could taste the food on screen, scientists may now have the answer.
Thanks to researchers from the City University of Hong Kong, it will soon be possible to experience the taste sensation in virtual reality.
Scientists have developed a fun VR device that can create ‘customizable taste’ experiences in a virtual world.
In the future, these strange devices could make food shows like the Great British Bake Off more immersive than ever, as viewers taste the food alongside Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
The ‘lollipop-shaped flavor interface systems’ can produce up to nine different flavors.
Currently that includes sugar, salt, citric acid, cherry, passion fruit, green tea, milk, durian and grapefruit.
Each of the flavors is made using food-grade flavor chemicals stored in pouches of agarose gel – a gel usually derived from red algae.
When voltage is applied to the lollipop, the chemicals rise to the surface of the gel in a liquid that mixes with saliva on the tongue to produce flavor.
Scientists have developed a VR lollipop that allows users to taste things in virtual reality. Pictured: Artist’s impression of the device used
This could make food shows like The Great British Bake Off more immersive, as viewers try the food alongside presenters Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith (pictured)
As virtual and mixed reality become more common, researchers are busy looking for ways to make our virtual worlds more immersive.
Scientists have found ways to recreate the senses of sight, sound and touch in virtual reality using ‘haptic’ equipment.
Some researchers have even created devices that can simulate odors in the virtual world using a Smell-O-Vision-like device attached under the nose.
However, taste has proven to be the most difficult of all five senses to recreate in virtual reality.
In an article published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, lead author Dr. Yiming Liu and their co-authors write: ‘In addition to visual, auditory, haptic and olfactory sensations, taste significantly influences both the physiological and psychological aspects of the human experience.
‘However, research into the development of taste-generating technologies in VR applications is still in its infancy.’
The researchers’ solution is a device that resembles a plastic lollipop with an array of metal electrodes around the edge.
Each of these points contains a packet of agarose gel infused with flavor chemicals.
The device is shaped like a lollipop and contains packets of agarose gel infused with flavor chemicals corresponding to sugar, salt, citric acid, cherry, passion fruit, green tea, milk, durian or grapefruit.
When an electric current is applied to the gels, the flavor chemicals rise to the surface and mix with the user’s saliva to create a taste sensation. The scientists synchronized these currents with virtual reality, so that users could taste things in the digital world
The unique properties of this gel ensure that someone who licks the device will not taste anything if no current is applied.
But when a current is applied to the gel, a process called iontophoresis forces the flavor compounds to rise to the surface.
If someone now licks the device, he or she can taste which flavor is being simulated.
As the current is increased, more flavor chemicals are driven to the surface, creating a stronger flavor.
By adjusting the voltage applied to each of the nine flavor options, the device can simulate a virtually endless range of possible flavors.
The researchers also produced VR lollipops with just two or five flavor gels that could produce an even more intense flavor at the expense of versatility.
To keep the entire setup portable, the researchers made the lollipop as light as possible.
Even when loaded with gels, the device weighs only 15 grams, which is about the weight of a AAA battery.
The scientists say this could be used in digital shopping, allowing users to sample products from the comfort of home before purchasing them. Pictured: Artist’s impression of the device used at home
The researchers write: ‘We report a series of intelligent and portable lollipop-shaped taste interface systems that include two to nine different taste options for establishing a customizable taste platform in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) environments.’
To complete the experience, the article also describes how the lollipop can be combined with a seven-channel scent simulator.
This device uses scented strips of paraffin wax to create scents that simulate what the user can see in virtual reality.
By combining taste and smell simulation, scientists can get as close as possible to the real eating experience.
In their paper, the scientists identify three areas that they think would be promising applications for their device.
Firstly, they suggest that the lollipop could be used to remotely carry out a ‘medical taste assessment’, which is the taste equivalent of an eye test at an optician’s.
Secondly, Dr Liu says the device can be used for ‘remote shopping’, where users can taste food products before purchasing them.
Finally, they add that the VR lollipop would likely be useful for use in ‘mixed reality’, where a child could, for example, explore the flavors of different foods.
The researchers combined their tasting device with an odor simulator (photo) to simulate the full experience of eating. The scent simulator places small strips of paraffin wax under the nose that are controlled to generate scents that match the virtual world
The researchers had considered using other methods to produce a taste simulation, such as electrostimulation, in which a current is applied directly to the tongue to trick the body into a taste sensation.
Previous studies have shown that low electrical currents in cutlery or chopsticks can be used to make food taste saltier than it actually is.
However, the researchers ultimately chose to use the gel-based approach because the weaker currents required were considered safer.
The only downside to this approach is that the gels can run out quite quickly.
Currently, the authors say the digital lollipop can be used for about an hour before the chemical-infused gels shrink to the point where they need to be replaced.
While the range of possible flavors is quite limited for now, the researchers say that in the future they will explore ways to add more flavor channels and improve the device’s runtime.