FunRasa: an interactive drinking platform

In this paper, we describe an interactive drinking platform, FunRasa, which digitally expands one's drinking experience. The system uses two methods: electrical stimulation on user's tongue and superimpose virtual color onto the actual drink, to expand the taste sensations of the drink. The system consists of a glass cup, an electronic platform with RGB LEDs, and a specially designed straw interface with two silver electrodes. When a user uses the straw, his tongue touches the silver electrodes (both lower and upper surfaces of the tip of the tongue) and is thus electrically stimulated when drinking. The user has the freedom to change the virtual color of the drink along with the magnitude of the current using two mechanical dials. Furthermore, we present several initial discussions on the user experience through a workshop that we conducted and several future usage scenarios of this technology.