Holiday and Christmas gatherings usually mean lots of food and family. Some are unfortunately unable to see family in person, but a new lickable screen invented by a Japanese professor will at least let you taste digital foods from your own home.
The new lickable screen (via Reuters) was invented by Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, which uses a combination of ten canisters of flavor solutions that are sprayed onto a film to create the flavors of various foods. This “hygienic” screen is then rolled out onto the flat screen for users to lick and taste.
“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,” Miyashita said.
The professor worked with a team of roughly 30 students to produce various flavor-focused devices, like a fork that makes foo somehow taste more flavorful. He built the “Taste the TV” (TTTV) prototype was made solely by himself over the past year, and a commercial version would cost roughly 100,000 yen or $875 to make.
Miyashita said he has been in talks with various companies to use his spray technology for other applications like applying pizza or chocolate tastes to slices of bread – or perhaps giving users the ability to finally taste all of the cheeses in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The professor said the TTTV device could be used for distance learning for cooks, as well as fun tasting games and quizzes. Miyashita said he also hopes that they can develop a platform where users worldwide can download tastes and share them, like how music is shared digitally now.
Previous attempts from game developers have included things like virtual reality that will let you smell digital girls and even get wet by them, while some VR makers have even tried to produce effects to make you feel heat and even the wind blowing.
A Meiji student tried out the TTTV for media at the event, where she told the screen she wanted to taste sweet chocolate. After a few attempts, the automated voice repeated her order and the jets sprayed something onto the plastic sheet. She then said “It’s kind of like milk chocolate. It’s sweet like a chocolate sauce.”
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