Scientists have just developed a device that can bring online food enjoyment experiences by simulating food flavors in virtual reality.
This system, called e-Taste, acts as an " electronics tongue", capable of recreating basic flavors such as sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness and umami ( Meat sweetness), helping users feel the flavors of dishes such as cakes or fish soups without really eating them.
The research team led by expert Yizhen Jia at Ohio State University (USA) has built the e-Taste using sensors to analyze the chemical components of food.
This device measures the levels of the 5 basals through compounds such as sodium chloride (salt), citric acid (chua), glucose (sweet), magnesium chloride (salt) and glutamate (umami). The collected data will be converted into a digital signal, then sent to a pumping system, pushing a small amount of hydrogel containing the flavor into a small tube placed under the user's tongue to recreate the taste buds.
In initial tests, 10 participants evaluated the accuracy of e-Taste when simulating the sour taste and found that it had a 70% chance of matching the actual flavor.
By expanding the experiment with more complex dishes such as lemon juice, cakes, fried eggs, fish soups and coffee, the 6 participants were able to accurately distinguish these flavors in more than 80% of their trials.
However, according to expert Alan Chalmers from the University of Warwick, this technology is still limited because the flavor of food is not only determined by taste but also depends on smell and vision.
For example, strawberries have a sour taste but are often felt sweet thanks to their aroma and color. That means if you only pass the sour taste through the device without the smell and color, users will not realize that they are "eating" strawberries.
Despite many challenges, the language is an important step forward in bringing the culinary experience into virtual reality, opening up potential for applications such as remote food enjoyment or diet simulation before implementing in real life.
