Chapter 9 – Taste Interfaces

Publisher Summary Taste is an important sense that is seldom used in traditional displays. It is the fundamental nature of the underlying sense and the difficulty of implementing unobtrusive devices that have made taste interfaces so difficult. Humans detect chemical features of food with taste receptor cells. They are assembled into taste buds, which are distributed across the tongue. Although humans can taste a vast array of chemical entities, they evoke few distinct taste sensations: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and “umami.” Distinct taste receptor cells detect each of the five basic tastes. Taste is the last frontier of virtual reality. It is very difficult to display because it is a multimodal sensation comprising chemical substance, sound, smell, and haptic sensations. Taste perceived by the tongue can be measured using a biological membrane sensor. The sensor measures the chemical substance of the five basic tastes. Any arbitrary taste can easily be synthesized from the five tastes based on sensor data. Another important element in taste is food texture. A multipoint force sensor has been used to measure force distribution on the teeth. The traditional method for displaying taste is the use of filter paper discs, such as for patients with taste disorders. A small filter paper disc is soaked with a chemical (taste) substance and put on the patient's tongue. Filter paper discs with various density of the chemical substance are used to test taste disorders. However, there has been no technique to display taste for human–computer interaction.