Squirty executioners bring the taste of cake and coffee to virtual reality

Imagine seeing the cake in a virtual world, then enjoy it. Researchers have taken a step towards this reality with a device that gives virtual taste by extinguishing chemicals on the tongue.

The system, called “e-Sweat”, can detect chemicals in food products and transmit this information to a device that gives the same or equivalent chemicals in a user’s language. By combining different chemicals, the device can mimic the fragrances ranging from the cake to the coffee, the researchers report February 28 The advances of science.

“This is a step towards the next generation of human machinery interfaces and virtual reality,” says Yizhen Jia material engineer from Ohio State University.

The system uses five edible chemicals: glucose for sweet acid, citric for sour chloride, sodium for salty chloride, magnesium to bitter and glutamate for pleasant umam. These chemicals are inserted into the gel inside the device, which mix in small channels. An electromagnetic pump gives the mixture in the tongue through a flexible channel, with strips inserted into the mouth.

To evaluate the e-Sie, Jia and the first colleagues had 10 participants to distinguish between the five mower intensities produced by the device. The researchers then created five complex flavors – lemonade, cake, fried eggs, fish soup and brown – based on their chemical compositions. Six participants were trained to recognize these fragrances, reaching a total accuracy of nearly 87 percent. Some flavors, such as lemonades and cakes, were easier to identify than others, such as the fried egg.

Previous efforts have tried to simulate the taste through electrical stimulation of the tongue, but this method remains poorly understood. “We don’t have one hundred percent understand how the perception of language and taste works,” says Nimesha Raninghe, a computer scientist at the University of Maine in Orono who was not involved in the study. “Taste and smell, being chemical sensors, are very challenging.” Chemicals, for now, can reproduce a wider range of tastes than electrical stimulation.

However, the taste is not enough. “The real coffee comes with the aromas and the feeling of coffee,” Jia says. “Only putting chemicals in your language will not be comparable.”

To help the bridge of that gap, Jia and his colleagues are working to include the wind using gas sensors and teaching machinery. The team envisions applications in diving games and even sensory rehabilitation, as it is for individuals who lost their sense of taste due to Covid.

Perhaps the biggest unknown is how ready people will be to wear a device that scolds chemicals in their language. “We are very reserved when it comes to put anything inside our mouth,” Ranister says. “Appearance, feeling and comfort are really important. It is a major aspect of this people should look in the future. “