New Tech Lets You Taste Digital Food

[smfadmin (OP)]

https://neurosciencenews.com/taste-cirtual-reality-food-28447/

February 28, 2025

Summary: Scientists have developed e-Taste, a novel technology that digitally replicates taste in virtual environments. Using chemical sensors and wireless dispensers, the system captures and transmits taste data remotely, enabling users to experience sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami flavors.

In tests, participants distinguished different taste intensities with 70% accuracy, and remote tasting was successfully initiated across long distances. Beyond gaming and immersive experiences, this breakthrough could enhance accessibility for individuals with sensory impairments and deepen our understanding of how the brain processes taste.

Key Facts

● Digital Taste Transmission: e-Taste captures and wirelessly replicates taste sensations in VR.

● Proven Accuracy: Human trials showed participants could distinguish taste intensities with 70% accuracy.

● Potential Applications: The technology could enhance gaming, accessibility, and neuroscience research.

Novel technology intends to redefine the virtual reality experience by expanding to incorporate a new sensory connection: taste. 

The interface, dubbed ‘e-Taste’, uses a combination of sensors and wireless chemical dispensers to facilitate the remote perception of taste – what scientists call gestation.

These sensors are attuned to recognize molecules like glucose and glutamate — chemicals that represent the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Once captured via an electrical signal, that data is wirelessly passed to a remote device for replication.

Plans to enhance the technology revolve around further miniaturizing the system and improving the system’s compatibility with different chemical compounds in food that produce taste sensations. Credit: Neuroscience News

The full article can be found at the link ...