From cake to coffee to fish soup, the new device could enhance our perception of taste
Imagine sinking your teeth into a rich slice of cake, without ever actually taking a bite. It might sound like science fiction, but it could soon be a reality thanks to a mind-blowing new device that lets you taste food in virtual reality.
Dubbed ‘e-Taste’, the futuristic technology was developed by Scientists at Ohio State University in the US. It uses special sensors and a concoction of chemicals to recreate different flavours, tricking your taste buds into thinking you’re actually eating.
In a new study, researchers tested the invention of volunteers to see how well they could recognise flavours through the device, like coffee, lemonade, cake, and other food and drinks. The device can simulate five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami – but not yet spicy.
“The chemical dimension in the current [virtual reality] VR and [augmented reality] AR realm is relatively underrepresented, especially when we talk about olfaction and gustation,” said Jinghua Li, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State. “It’s a gap that needs to be filled and we’ve developed that with this next-generation system.”
How does it work? The ‘e-Taste’ system uses a tiny pump and chemical sensors that send taste signals directly to the mouth. It detects certain molecules in sweet and salty food, such as glucose and glutamate, respectively. Then it concerts these into electrical signals which are sent wirelessly to a remote device which recreates the taste.
To complete the ‘electronic tongue’, a small pump pushes a liquid solution through a gel layer that touches the user’s mouth – and the longer the solution interacts with the gel, the stronger the taste becomes.
“Based on the digital instruction, you can also choose to release one or several different tastes simultaneously so that they can form different sensations,” she said.
While the technology still needs fine-tuning, the future of digital dining is closer than ever. The study found that participants could recognise different sour tastes with 70 per cent accuracy, but the results for tastes representing foods – lemonade, cake, fried egg, fish soup or coffee – were a little more mixed.
However, the researchers say this is likely due to how subjective taste is. “Taste and smell are greatly related to human emotion and memory,” said Li. “So our sensor has to learn to capture, control and store all that information.”
Not only do the team hope the breakthrough will transform the gaming experience, but the study notes that the device could promote accessibility and inclusivity in virtual spaces for people with disabilities, such as traumatic brain injuries or Long Covid.
“Potential applications include immersive gaming, online shopping, remote education, weight management, sensory testing, physical rehabilitation, and others,” the authors wrote in the study.
“This will help people connect in virtual spaces in never-before-seen ways,” said Li. “This concept is here and it is a good first step to becoming a small part of the metaverse.”
The study was published in the journal Science Advances.
