Augmented reality visor makes cake taste moister, more delicious
Researchers have developed an augmented reality (AR) visor system that enables them to manipulate the light coming off food in such a way as to 'trick' people consuming the food into experiencing it as more or less moist, watery, or even delicious. The findings not only reveal how human taste is experienced in a multisensorial way—through a combination of visual perception, smell and even sound—but the technique could be used in hospitals to improve the palatability of food, or as a design development tool in the food industry.
The findings were published in Scientific Reports on September 30, 2020.
Underlying that visual experience is the way that light bounces off an object, or—to put it in more scientific terms—the distribution of luminance.
The researchers developed an augmented reality (AR) system that allows them to manipulate the standard deviation of luminance distribution.
The AR manipulation was most effective in moistness (of the cake) and wateriness (of the ketchup), while the effect of the system on perception of sweetness was relatively modest
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