OSU e-Taste

Ohio State's e-Taste research investigates how selected chemical taste information could be sensed and recreated at another location. The system combines sensing with a mouth-interfacing delivery mechanism, using controlled release rather than suggesting that a headset alone can make any food taste appear. That distinction makes the project more understandable and less sensational than a claim of complete virtual dining.

The university's original report describes work involving five basic taste qualities and experiments in remote transmission. Those demonstrations are interesting evidence of a mechanism, but the experience of eating also involves smell, texture, temperature and expectation. Reproducing selected taste cues is therefore a narrower achievement than reproducing an entire meal.

Its value in this list is as an example of the interfaces needed when digital systems meet chemical sensation. A future product would have to solve portability, cleaning, replenishment and consistent delivery as well as the electronics. The reported prototype gives researchers something concrete to evaluate; it does not yet give a consumer a routine wearable accessory. We place it after the olfactory interface because the mouth-contact delivery system adds particularly demanding practical constraints, while recognising that both projects explore meaningful gaps in current immersive media.

[1] New device could let you taste food in virtual reality | College of Engineering [2] New device could let you taste food in virtual reality | College of Engineering