A professor in Japan's Meiji University Homei Miyashita has spent his talents developing a way to connect the digital world to our physical tastebuds using a prototype TV that you can lick to get a taste of food flavours.
The device is called Taste the TV (TTTV). It uses a carousel of ten flavour canisters that spray in combination to create the taste of a particular food. The flavour sample then rolls on hygienic film over a flat TV screen for the viewer to try.
Taste the TV (TTTV) is the result of a collaboration between Miyashita and thirty students from the university, who have also produced other multi-sensory experiences such as a fork that can make food taste better.
Homei Miyashita says that this kind of technology can enhance the way people connect and interact with the outside world in the era of pandemic.
"The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home," he said.
TTTV's prototype was built over the last year and a commercial version would cost about 100,000 yen to produce.
One Meiji student demonstrated TTTV for reporters, telling the screen she wanted to taste sweet chocolate. After a few tries, an automated voice repeated the order and flavour jets spritzed a sample onto a plastic sheet.
"It's kind of like milk chocolate," she said. "It's sweet like a chocolate sauce."
