Simulating Different Tastes On Tongue Electronically: A National University of Singapore Research

Previously on VoiCE, you have read about projects on Madeleine- The Analogue 'Odor-Camera' That Captures Smell Instead Of Images and This TV Will Let You Smell The Coffee It's Showing On Screen scents electronically. These developments gave us a glimpse of the future where you would be able smell the food being cooked by your favourite chef on a TV show. But what if you want a taste of that exotic dish? Researchers at the University of Singapore have made a breakthrough in this direction. A team lead by Nimesha Ranasinghe has developed a synthesiser that is able to simulate tastes like salt, sweet, sour and bitter. The tastes are transmitted to the subject’s tongue with a help of two silver electrodes. One uses varying alternating current and other makes small changes in temperature with the help of semiconductor elements to fool the taste receptors into perceiving various tastes.


In its present iteration users have to stick out their tongue and put the electrodes into their mouth but the researchers are working on scaling down the synthesiser to make it more compact. Continuing with their research, the team is working on a “digital lollipop” that will give a sugar hit to people without using any sweetener. This would help diabetics with their sugar craving without increasing blood sugar levels. For transmitting taste signals the team has also developed Taste Over Internet Protocol (TOIP) data format. While the team is working on bringing savoury taste to this device they have outlined a few other uses for its innovation. They say that it can be used in video games where users will given a “sweet, minty taste” when they successfully complete a level in the game and they shall be given a “sour reward” if they fail. We hope that this technology lands in India as soon as possible so that we can taste as many sweets as possible without having to worry about getting fat.

For more have a look at the video below and continue reading at these links: #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-# & Researchers in Singapore made an electric lollipop that simulates a real one - The Verge