Digital taste: Electronic stimulation of taste sensations

Abstract

With the continuous advancements in ubiquitous computing and media, the technology has widened to include the multisensory experiences. Although there are quite a lot of systems in auditory, vision, and haptic domains, remarkably few attempts have been made in smell and taste senses in order to facilitate ambient intelligence. We present a novel control system that enables digital stimulations of the sense of taste (gustation) to enhance remote multisensory interactions on human. The system uses two approaches to actuate taste sensations digitally: the electrical and thermal stimulations on tongue. At present, the initial experimental results suggested that sourness and saltiness are the main sensations that could be evoked besides several evidences of sweet and bitter sensations. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.