Recording and reproducing flavor

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 “films” – a 17-second clip that showed a man playing the violin while two others danced nearby. In other words, for 125 years, it was possible to record audiovisual scenes and reproduce them with reasonably high fidelity. But in all of human history, there was no way to record and reproduce the taste of a food or drink – that was until last year, with the advent of Homei Miyashita’s “Taste Display”. The invention of Miyashita, a scientist at Meiji University in Tokyo, is a 21^st– analog of the century of a phonograph – one that reproduces flavors instead of sounds.

Miyashita has an old interest in food and flavor. His curiosity about the ingredients was aroused as a child when his mother wrote a cookbook. He conducted his own research at Meiji University as one of the founders of the Frontier Media Science program, which explores the interface between technology and human senses. In 2012, he and a former PhD student Hiromi Nakamura (now on the faculty of Tokyo University), developed an “electric fork” that originally aimed to enhance the taste of hospital food – the idea was to make the food more salty , for example, without actually adding salt, avoiding possibly adverse health consequences.

This was an initial step for Miyashita, who had bigger and more ambitious plans. While the electric fork can make the taste of food more salty or sour, the Flavor Display can reproduce none flavor that anyone can imagine. This is how it works, starting with a little anatomy: the human tongue has separate receptors to detect the five basic flavors – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. Miyashita’s device has five different gels, each containing an electrolyte solution that makes the tongue, when in contact with the surface, feel one of these flavors with an easily adjustable intensity. Each gel is connected to a separate electrical current (extremely weak), and the flavor associated with that gel decreases when the current is turned on. A sixth tasteless gel is also included as a tampon that keeps the overall current level – and the associated tongue stimulation – constant at all times.

By adjusting the current intensities for all six gels, which can be done automatically, the taste of a chocolate milkshake or a sirloin steak or any other desired treatment can be experienced with the use of this device without any caloric intake.

The Taste Display initially took the form of a rod that resembles a handheld microphone with a surface designed to be licked instead of spoken. But Miyashita already has an initial version of a mask, which allows the user to continuously contact the flavor-giving surface as part of a virtual reality system. He also developed a “lickable screen” that can be incorporated into the cell phone, allowing a person to watch a cooking show, for example, while tasting various samples.

“Or someone who looks at a recipe on a website can discover the taste of that dish,” he says. “We now have smartphones with cameras, monitors, microphones and speakers. But soon we will be able to go further and upload and download our taste experiences. “

This is a brief introduction to the story part about flavor reproduction, but what about the end of the recordings? Miyashita is currently using commercially available “taste sensors” that provide a quantitative measure of the five flavor components of any food that is sampled. He developed equations that convert the flavor data into a corresponding current force for each of the five flavors.

Current flavor sensors are bulky machines that are somewhat slow to produce results. Miyashita is exploring faster and more portable ways to record flavors – perhaps through the use of a thermometer-like device that can be dipped in food, providing quick readings of the distinct flavor components. There is already a portable “salt meter” like this, which could be adapted to measure other flavors as well. In 10 years, he predicts, we will be able to instantly record and reproduce flavor information.

Eating, however, is more than just feeling the five basic flavors in their many combinations. Smell is also an important part of the taste experience, and Miyashita is already experimenting with “smelling displays”. He is also examining the sensation of touch, examining the sensation of a certain food in his mouth. To this end, he is working on 3D printing, using not just plain plastic, but a variety of materials with varying degrees of roughness. “By combining this with our taste research,” he says, “we hope to reproduce the texture you feel when you eat.”

“But there is a limit to what you can do,” he admits. “You could watch a travel video, but it probably won’t eliminate your desire to visit a foreign country. Nor would listening to a record necessarily satisfy your desire to listen to live music. ”And so does taste. Technology can, of course, do wonderful things – your laboratory is an excellent 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.