Scientists invented a “digital lollipop” in the works that electrically and thermally stimulates the tongue to produce basic flavors—bitter, sour, salty, sweet. He dreams of a system that would let friends in Paris send you a taste of their wine over the Internet. The ultimate Internet, will integrate all our senses.
What it is
The Digital Taste Synthesizer could digitally stimulate the human sense of taste. The system utilizes noninvasive electrical and thermal stimulations on human tongue thus to formulate virtual taste sensations.The devices is still running tests. But in the future we will be able to send and regenerate taste sensations remotely, which will augment existing digital multimodal interactions. For example, the technology will open up entirely new experiences such as tasting gourmet food from a remote location which sent by your best friend.
Here you can see how it works. (Sorry for the bad quality but it is explained clearly.)
Why it’s Cool
The main motivation of this work is to improve one’s everyday life experiences through sharing taste sensations, since it is strongly associated with memories and emotions. This will encourage new experiences and communication possibilities such as tasting food from remote locations and sending emotional taste messages to remote people.
