Recording and reproduction of taste

In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, becoming the first person to record and reproduce his own voice. In 1895, the Edison Company created one of the first sound “movies” – a 17-second clip showing a man playing the violin while two others danced nearby. For 125 years, in other words, it has been possible to record audio and visual scenes and play them with reasonable fidelity. But throughout human history, there has been no way to record and reproduce the taste of a food or drink – until last year with the appearance of Homei Miyashita’s “Taste Display”. The invention of Miyashita, a scientist at Meiji University in Tokyo, is a 21^St.-analogue of the century of a phonograph – one that renders tastes rather than sounds.

Miyashita has a long-standing interest in food and taste. Her curiosity about ingredients was aroused in her childhood when her mother wrote a cookbook. He did his own research at Meiji University as one of the founders of the Frontier Media Science program, which explores the interface between technology and the human senses. In 2012, he and a former doctoral student Hiromi Nakamura (now at the University of Tokyo) developed an “electric fork” that was originally designed to enhance the flavor of hospital food – the idea being to make the food taste better. salty, for example, without actually adding salt, thus avoiding the negative health consequences.

This was an early step for Miyashita, who had bigger and more ambitious plans. While the electric fork may make the food taste saltier or more sour, the taste display may be reproduced. anything aroma that he might care about evoking. Here’s how it works, starting with a little anatomy: human tongue has separate receptors for detecting the five basic tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. Miyashita’s device has five different gels, each containing an electrolyte solution that makes the tongue, on contact with the surface, feel one of those flavors at an intensity that is easy to adjust. Each gel is connected to a separate (extremely weak) electric current, and the taste associated with that gel diminishes when the current is increased. A sixth tasteless gel is also included as a buffer that keeps the current level constant – and the associated tongue stimulation – constant at all times.

By adjusting the current concentrations for all six gels, which can be done automatically, the taste of a chocolate milkshake or a corn steak or any other desired delicacy can be experienced by using this device without any caloric intake.

Taste Display originally took the form of a rod that resembles a handheld microphone with a surface that is designed to be licked rather than spoken. But Miyashita already has an early version of a mask, which allows the user continuous contact with the surface that gives flavor, as part of a virtual reality system. He also developed a “licking screen” that can be incorporated into a mobile phone, allowing a person to watch a cooking show, for example, while tasting various samples.

“Or someone looking at a recipe on a website might find out what that dish tastes like,” he says. “Now we have smartphones with cameras, displays, microphones and speakers. But soon we will be able to go further and upload and download our tasting experiences. ”

This is a brief introduction to the reproductive part of taste in the story, but what about the end of recording things? Miyashita currently uses commercially available “taste sensors”, which provide a quantitative measure of the five aromatic components of any food that is taken. He developed equations that turn taste data into an appropriate current intensity for each of the five flavors.

Today’s taste sensors are bulky machines that are quite slow to get results. Miyashita explores faster and more portable ways of recording taste – perhaps by using a thermometer-like device that can be immersed in food, providing quick readings of distinct flavor components. A portable “salt meter” like this already exists and could be adapted to measure other flavors. Within 10 years, he predicts, we should be able to record instantly and reproduce information about taste.

However, food means more than just feeling the five basic flavors in their myriad combinations. Smell is also an important part of the taste experience, and Miyashita is already experimenting with “smell displays”. He also looks at the sensation of touch, examining how a certain food feels in your mouth. To this end, it works on 3D printing, using not only smooth plastic, but a range of materials that have varying degrees of roughness. “Combining this with our taste research,” he says, “we hope to reproduce the texture you feel as you eat.”

“But you can do so many things,” he admits. “You could watch a travel video, but it probably won’t take away your desire to visit a foreign country. Listening to a record would not necessarily satisfy your desire to listen to live music. And so it is with taste. Technology can, of course, do wonderful things – its lab being a prime example. But there is also something to be said for a good home-cooked meal, says Miyashita, perhaps taken from the pages of her mother’s cookbook.