Imagine being able to taste your meal before purchasing it online. Doesn’t that sound strange? The internet transmits sound and images to us, but it doesn’t convey taste or smell.

Researchers are working on transmitting taste just as sound and images are transmitted. In this context, researchers at Ohio State University have successfully developed a device called e-Taste, which can transmit the experience of tasting food over long distances.

The device consists of two parts: the first part is placed in the food to be tasted, and the second part is placed in the user’s mouth. The first part contains sensors that measure the concentration of substances responsible for the five basic tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami. The taste data is then recorded digitally and transmitted to the second part in the user’s mouth, which consists of five small chambers. Each chamber contains chemicals that produce one of the five tastes. Each chamber is connected to a small pump that is activated according to the taste to be produced, pushing the chemical into a small channel containing a hydrogel that interacts with it, delivering the taste to the mouth.

The device is designed to release the taste directly onto the taste receptors in the mouth to enhance the sensation. The concentration of the taste is controlled by the duration of the pump’s operation, which determines the amount of chemical mixed with the hydrogel. The reaction time of the chemical with the gel also plays a role in determining the taste’s intensity.

The researchers tested the device on a group of people using a single taste — sour — to see if it could generate different levels of sourness. They found that the device was 70% successful in providing an impression of the same level of sourness that users felt when tasting sour beverages directly.

The researchers then tested the device in producing multi-flavored foods, such as soup and coffee, and found the results to be much less accurate. This may not only be due to limitations of the device but also to individual taste experiences. Each person may perceive taste differently depending on memory, smell, and other factors. Taste is not just a purely chemical process; it is also influenced by sensory and cognitive factors. Additionally, the process of sensing taste has not yet reached the stage of measuring it as accurately as it is in reality, and the process of generating taste also requires further improvements.

Therefore, this system needs more research to become more effective in measuring and reproducing taste in a way that suits each individual. This requires the use of artificial intelligence to predict the appropriate taste based on the chemical composition of the food and individual-specific information, such as taste preferences and past experiences.

In the future, this device may allow us to experience the real taste of food without actually eating it, adding a new dimension to our experience in the virtual world and opening up vast possibilities for applications in fields such as education, entertainment, and even medicine.