SAN FRANCISCO -- If you've ever seen food on TV that you wish you could taste, now you can.
A professor at Meiji University in Japan has come up with a television that dispenses flavors on the screen. It works by mixing a combination of 10 flavors to create the taste of whatever food item is on the screen. Then it dispenses the flavor onto a film that slides onto the screen, where users can lick it off.
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"Wow, it actually tastes like milk chocolate," said Meiji University student, Yuki Hou. "It's sweet and tasty."
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Professor Homei Miyashita believes the applications are endless, especially during a global pandemic. He believes the machine could be used to connect people to foods and flavors from around the world, right from their own homes. "I am thinking of making a platform where tastes from all over the world can be distributed as 'taste content'. It's the same as watching a movie or listening to a song that you like," said Miyashita. "I hope people can, in the future, download and enjoy the flavours of the food from the restaurants they fancy, regardless of where they are based in the future."
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Other uses could include distance learning for sommeliers and cooks, and tasting games and quizzes in your home. Miyashita is also talking with companies who could use the "flavor-spray technology"
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Miyashita has also been in talks with companies about using his flavour-spray technology for applications like a device that can apply pizza or chocolate taste to a slice of bread.