This Japanese Professor Created A TV Screen That You Can Taste By Licking
A Japanese professor has created a lickable TV screen that can imitate the taste of food.
A Japanese professor has created a lickable TV screen that can imitate the taste of food.
After users order a particular dish, the TV then creates the taste of the food by spraying the flavors onto a hygienic film laid over the flat TV screen that can be licked.
Created by Homei Miyashita, a professor at Meiji University, Taste the TV (TTTV) has 10 different flavor canisters that can be combined into different tastes of food.
Miyashita said the flavors of all types of food can be broken down into 10 basic tastes such as salty, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and savory.
The machine is programmed with 20 different “recipes” of food.
Miyashita told Reuters that he came up with the invention during the COVID-19 pandemic so that people can taste different foods while staying at home.
“When we stay home during COVID-19, we can watch videos taken from places far away and talk to people who are far away, with your voice, by using [devices such as] telephones and television sets,” he said. “However, we couldn’t taste the food in restaurants which are far away when we stayed at home, which I thought was one issue brought up by COVID-19. I wanted to somehow make this [tasting food] a reality, so that people can experience various tastes [of food] which are far away while staying at home. That was my motivation to develop this.”
He said he built the TTTV prototype by himself over the past year, and that it would cost about 100,000 yen (US$875) to make.
The technology can also be applied for distance learning for sommeliers and cooks, tasting games and quizzes, he said.
Miyashita said he hopes to create a future where people can download and enjoy the flavors of food from restaurants they fancy, regardless of where they are based.
