New Scientist: Imagine you could dip your hand in the cookie jar and be guaranteed to pull out whatever flavour you feel like. For cookie-lovers visiting the SIGGRAPH computer graphics and animation conference in Los Angeles, this dream was turned into reality.
We are all used to seeing, hearing and, increasingly, touching computer displays, but there has been little research into how computers can successfully simulate taste. Part of the problem is that taste is generated by a combination of factors working together, including vision, smell and memories.
Tajuki Narumi and colleagues from the University of Tokyo in Japan decided to tackle this problem with a “display” that exploits several senses. Their testbed? The humble cookie.
The device is worn over the user’s head and can transform the taste of a plain cookie to any of seven flavours. It combines augmented reality technology with smells released by an air pump to trick the user’s senses.
Future on display: the flavour-changing cookie [New Scientist]