Imagine taste food in a video game. It is already possible, but the strawberry explains why the taste is not all in the perception of the taste of food.
Virtual reality (RV) already allows you to prove flavors: you just need an “electronic language”.
A new system, e-thievesis able to detect and replicate the five fundamental flavors: salty, sour, sweet, bitter and umami, according to a study on February 28 in Science Advances. These flavors are linked to specific chemicals – sodium chloride for salty, citrus acid to sour, glucose to candy, magnesium chloride for bitter and glutamate for umami.
With sensors, used to measure the levels of these chemicals in food, this language converts the data into digital signalswhich are then sent to a pump that releases controlled amounts of flavor -filled hydrogre to a tube placed under the user’s tongue. And that’s how you can prove food… without proving them (technically).
Hydrogels with flavor are administered in the mouth through a small tube
The system developed by Yizhen Jiaalong with its University of Ohio team, was first tested with simpler flavors, such as sour. The sourness generated by the electronic language corresponded to the real sour of a 70% of the time, reported the participants in the study.
Later, lemonade, cake, starry eggs, fish soup and coffee were identified correctly in more than 80% of the tests.
Possible applications of the new device include “games, online purchases, distance education, weight management, sensory tests, physical rehabilitation and others,” the researchers write.
Although fascinating, taste is influenced by more than just taste, experts explain. The new technology does not take into account the aroma, which plays a key role in the perception of the taste of food.
“The next time you eat a strawberry, close your nose and eyes. A strawberry is very sour, but is perceived as sweet due to its aroma and red color. Therefore, if you send only sour with your device, you will never know that it is indeed a strawberry, ”explains Alan Chalmers from the University of Warwick, to:“ An electronic language like this is capable of extracting the amount of sweetness [e] Acidity, but not the taste as a human language perceives it. ”
