A university professor in Japan has just created a rather unique device: a lickable screen. By combining different aromas, the device can reproduce many tastes which are applied to a film on the screen, designed to be licked.
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From emissions like Top chef Where The Best Pastry would be much more interesting for viewers if it was possible to taste the dishes of the candidates. This is what Homei Miyashita, a professor at Meiji University in Japan, offers. He designed a device called TTTV or Taste the TV (taste the TV), a lickable display that recreates the food taste presented on the screen.
In reality, it is not the screen itself that is lickable, but a film plastic which is unrolled above. The apparatus consists of ten reservoirs containing different aromas. These are combined to recreate the desired taste and sent as a spray on the plastic film below, like a printer inkjet. Rollers move the film around the screen for the user to lick it off. It is also possible to place a cup under the spray if the idea of licking the screen turns you off.
The TTTV works by spraying a mixture of products onto a plastic wrap to recreate the tastes of the food. (Turn on automatic caption translation.) © Meiji University
Taste a menu before ordering
To create the system, the researcher mixed different foods that he then analyzed with a sensor of electronic taste. He thus determined their compositions in order to reconstitute them with the ten aroma reservoirs. Homei Miyashita estimates that it would be possible to produce a commercial version of the TTTV for 100,000 yen (770 euros). This is not his first invention in this field, since he had already created a electronic pacifier able to synthesize different tastes.
Such a device could be used to taste menus before ordering, different games or share the taste food during a video call. The device also makes it possible to flavor cookies or toast and could be used as an educational tool, for example to learn how to become a sommelier.
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