Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Researchers at Yokohama National University have developed an Augmented Reality (AR) visor that can trick your taste buds into believing that an item of food is more moist and delicious.
It is an established fact that human perception of taste is affected not only by direct interaction with taste buds, but also by the expectations created by sight and smells. The AR visor can thus manipulate the perception of taste by changing the way that light bounces off an object, in this case a piece of food, and thus altering one’s expectations.
The studies found, however, that some aspects of taste can be manipulated in this way more easily than others. For example, while changing the light patterns can impact perceptions of moistness and perhaps freshness, it appears to exercise little effect on perceptions of sweetness.
The Yokohama researchers plan to continue with other kinds of tests in order to understand more fully the connections between sight and taste.
The practical applications for this technology also remain to be explored, but it has been suggested that such AR visors might be used to make hospital food “taste” better.
But whether or not such a scheme to trick our taste buds is actually desirable is, well, a matter of perception.