Virtual Reality can transport a user in distant experiences in his own imperfect ways. With a headset on, an everyday person can get a short glimpse of what it is like to perform surgery, Tour through the Louvreor even make an arrest. However, one thing that VR cannot do yet is to simulate the experience of eating lunch. But that could change thanks to a new “bio-integrated taste interface” device called “E-Taste”.
Researchers from Ohio State University have detailed how their new device works this week in the magazine Science is progressing. They created a small electromagnetic pump connected to a liquid channel of chemicals that, when mixed in the right proportions, can approach the taste of coffee, lemonade, cake and other food and drinks. That newly manufactured chemical liquid is then carried out by a gel. Users ultimately experience the taste as a liquid that is in their mouths. Researchers can then remotely check the observed intensity of the gel. And although a first group of human test subjects had difficulty making an accurate distinction between different taste profiles, the study suggests that a future VR Steakhouse experience may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
Researchers analyzed the taste at a molecular level
E-Smek is composed of three different phases. The first phase uses a set of sensors to analyze a food or drink and to recognize common molecules such as glucose and glutamate that contribute to the unique taste. Different combinations of these chemicals correspond to the five basic making: sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami. Once the sample has been analyzed, the system codes the data and sends it wirelessly to the e-chapel device. Researchers do not have to be in the same room or even the same state to send this taste data. In fact, De Paper describes how a researcher in California immersed a sensor plaster in a glass lemonade and then sent the corresponding “digital instruction” to a colleague who operates the device in Ohio.
The second phase of the process is aimed at replicating the initial sample flavor. A small electromagnetic pump contains several liquid rooms filled with chemicals that match different taste sensations. These chemicals are combined in a “mixing zone” in proportions determined by the estimated molecules that are present in the food or drink that it tries to imitate. Once the desired taste profile has been reached, researchers can adjust the timing of the cycles of the pump to increase or reduce the overall intensity of taste. The final mixture is then converted into a gel. Water that flows through the gel carries the taste in the mouth of the end user. (They don’t swallow the chemical brew). With this process the user can see specific flavors, although no real food or drink is involved.
Professor of the state of Ohio and co-author Jinhua Li noted that chemical dimensions are still “relatively under-represented” in virtual and augmented reality.
“It is a gap that needs to be filled and we developed that,” Li said in a statement.
People test people could distinguish the taste intensity
The researchers tested their new device on 10 volunteers and received mixed results. On the positive side, the test subjects could distinguish between different acid taste profile intensities with around 70 percent accuracy. However, the tests were less convincing when researchers asked the participants to distinguish between flavors intended to represent cake, baked egg, coffee and fish soup. However, that discrepancy is not necessarily completely due to poor device performance. Even in the physical world, the taste is inherently subjective. Factors such as odor, memory and visual signals can influence how we perceive food. Two people can experience the taste of the same meal something else.
“Taste and scent are strongly related to human emotion and memory,” Li added. “So our sensor must learn to record, control and save all that information.”
Yizhen Jia, a PhD student of the Ohio State University student and paper co-first author, said Popular science The test process led to some unexpected laboratory moments. Some volunteers were surprised to taste liquid that apparently look like coffee that came out of a device that looked nothing like a normal coffee maker. Jia himself said that at one point he gave himself a higher dose of citric acid in one experiment than expected and soon realized that they had to call it back. Sorting out the right amount of chemicals to add and for which duration was a constant process of trial and error.
Interesting is that this is not the first attempt to bring taste sensations to VR. Last year, researchers from City University of Hong Kong developed a handheld, lolly-like device Designed to help people taste certain flavors in virtual reality settings. That device contained chemicals that can produce nine different flavors. When a tension was applied to its gel -like surface, the chemicals would travel up as a liquid and mix with the user’s saliva, creating a facsimile of the intended virtual taste experience. Details about that device have been published in the diary Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
There is a long, messy history of adding senses to media
Taste to VR is perhaps new, but the practice to try to add more senses to media dates almost a century. In the 1930s, different theaters experimented With the release of smell in the air in films. A Swiss advertisement -director named Hans Laube, then had a new system called “Odor-ovision‘Who used a complex system of pipes in a cinema to release perfumed scent during certain quoted points in the version. More recently, researchers from Japan designed a home television that they ‘called’smelling screen‘That used gelpellets to send evaporated odor flows to viewers. And last month, Sony teased a future system They are working on where users can enter a cube-like platform, surrounded by LED screens to play iconic PlayStation games such as Like The last of us. In addition to a 360-degree visual experience, Sony said that players can also smell aspects of their environment.
The e-captain researchers believe that their device can also have applications that go beyond video games. Theoretically, the technology could in a day allow users to taste items virtually test items before they order them. Medical professionals can also use the device to remotely assess whether patients have lost certain aspects of taste, which can be an early indicator of illness. Moreover, the device could serve as an aid when re -introducing taste sensations for people with certain neurological disorders or diseases, such as long Covid, who have affected their ability to taste food.
“This concept is here and it is a good first step to become a small part of the metaverse,” Li said.
More Deals, Reviews and Purchase Guides
