"Experiencing Food in Virtual Reality Games? This Sensor Will Make You Taste Reality."
Known as e-Taste, this technology has the ability to release chemical substances on the tongue, providing an authentic taste experience of the food and beverages we might find in the virtual world.
In recent years, researchers have been working to make virtual reality (VR) experiences more immersive and personalized. One example of this is a device called an olfactometer, developed by experts from Stockholm University in 2022, which allows users to smell what they see in a game while using a VR headset. However, smell is just one part of the experience. What if it were possible to transmit a true taste to the palate? A team from Ohio State University has created a system called e-Taste, which can replicate the taste of real food and drinks and deliver it directly to a person's palate hundreds of miles away.
The e-Taste system consists of two main components: a taster and a receiver. The taster has a special patch that can detect the molecules responsible for the five basic tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami. In their research, the team focused on detecting glucose and glutamate with the sensor patch.
During testing, a person in California drinking lemonade immersed the taster patch in the drink. The sensor identified the concentration of the target chemicals and transmitted that electrochemical data to a receiving kit in a laboratory in Ohio. The receiver includes a patch that is placed on the tongue and a pump connected to a liquid channel. When stimulated electrically, the liquid flows through a gel-based system to the tongue, providing a realistic taste sensation. The intensity of the flavor can be adjusted by varying the volume of the liquid pumped.
In human trials, participants with the receiver kit were able to identify different levels of acidity with 70% accuracy. The team suggests that, in addition to enhancing gaming experiences, the system could be useful in promoting accessibility and inclusion in virtual spaces for people with disabilities, such as those who have suffered traumatic brain injuries or are facing Long Covid, which has brought the loss of taste to public attention.
This technology could also facilitate the identification and testing of food sources under adverse conditions, as well as improve quality and freshness in online shopping, remote education, and taste perception analysis by healthcare professionals. The e-Taste has been tested on two network protocols: a short-range implementation covering 200 meters and a long-range design using an internet connection with no distance limit.
The study's co-author and faculty member at the university, Jinghua Li, stated that this concept represents an important first step toward a small contribution to the metaverse. It is not the first time that efforts have been made to enrich the VR experience with senses such as smell or taste. Recently, OVR introduced a portable kit that can produce hundreds of scents through a cartridge system. At the City University of Hong Kong and Beihang University in China, a portable sensor was developed that uses miniaturized scent generators.
The VR kit can recognize images and generate the corresponding smell in about two seconds. However, the sense of taste is closely related to smell. While the industry has found ways to incorporate smells into AR and VR experiences, the e-Taste system demonstrates that it is also possible to activate taste sensations remotely. During their trials, the team evaluated participants with food-grade chemicals that mimic the taste of cake, fried egg, coffee, and fish soup. The sensor's response time was about ten seconds, while the short-range format recorded a latency of 0.3 seconds, and the long-range information transfer was 1.4 seconds.
The team's work could pave the way for a new era of AR/VR systems with chemical components that would allow users not only to see and hear virtual environments but also to taste them. Currently, the team is focused on miniaturizing the e-Taste kit and experimenting with non-gel solutions for delivering taste chemicals. One idea involves using separate bags for water and flavored fluids to vary the concentration as needed.
Additionally, a stream of water would help clean the channels connected to the tongue, minimizing the risk of flavor contamination in future sessions. Findings from the e-Taste system could be used to develop VR gaming systems that integrate an immersive sensation by combining flavors and scents with what users see in a virtual world. For now, what exists is an experimentally validated system that shows it is feasible to incorporate taste into virtual experiences, but there is still work to be done to miniaturize the entire system and standardize the electrochemical data representing various foods and beverages.
On another note, ASUS recently introduced a mouse that features a rechargeable pouch for aromatic oils, which can diffuse pleasant scents into the air, enhancing the work environment.
