An innovative electronic tongue, known as e-Taste, has been created at The Ohio State University, capable of mimicking flavors such as cake and fish soup. This breakthrough technology aims to enhance virtual reality experiences, though it currently lacks the ability to emulate other factors affecting taste, notably aroma.
Yizhen Jia and his research team have engineered this system to sample food and reproduce its flavors within a user’s mouth. The e-Taste utilizes five essential taste-inducing chemicals: sodium chloride for salty, citric acid for sour, glucose for sweet, magnesium chloride for bitter, and glutamate for umami. “These five flavors encompass a broad range of our daily food experiences,” Jia noted.
The system employs sensors to analyze the concentration of these chemicals in food, converting the data into digital signals that are transmitted to a pump. The pump then dispenses precise amounts of flavored hydrogels into a small tube positioned under the user’s tongue.
In initial tests, researchers evaluated the device’s ability to replicate distinct flavors. They asked 10 participants to rate how closely the reproduced sourness matched real sour samples on a five-point scale, with a striking 70 percent accuracy achieved.
The team further assessed the e-Taste’s capacity to replicate complex flavors—including lemonade, cake, fried egg, fish soup, and coffee—where participants demonstrated the ability to accurately distinguish between flavors over 80 percent of the time.
While promising, the technology has its limitations, according to experts. Alan Chalmers from the University of Warwick emphasizes that flavor perception also heavily relies on other senses. “For instance, closing your nose and eyes while tasting a strawberry reveals its sourness yet masks its sweetness associated with aroma and color. Therefore, transmitting just sourness does not yield a true representation of the strawberry’s flavor,” he explained.
