Watching celebrity chefs like Nigella Lawson or Gordon Ramsay whip up a culinary creation on television can set viewers' taste buds tingling.
But now television viewers could soon be able to sample the food for themselves with the help of new technology that can electronically recreate tastes.
Scientists have developed a simulator that uses electrodes to stimulate the taste buds on the tongue to reproduce salt, sweet, sour and bitter sensations.
The Digital State Interface also uses subtle changes in temperature to alter the taste experience.
The researchers hope that the system could eventually be used to allow television viewers to experience tastes while they are watching their favourite programmes.
Dr Nimesha Ranasinghe, an engineer at the National University of Singapore, said it could also be used in computer games or to allow people to share meals over the internet.
His team are also working on a digital lollipop that can produce all the sweet enjoyment of a real piece of confectionery but without the harm to teeth or risk of putting on weight.
He said: “Digital taste is a technology for digitally simulating the sensation of taste.
"It uses two methods - electrical stimulation and thermal stimulation to stimulate the tip of the human tongue non-invasively in order to produce primary taste sensations such as salty, sour, sweet, bitter.
"By manipulating the magnitude of current, frequency, and temperature - both heating and cooling - thus far salty, sour, and bitter sensations have been successfully generated.
"Simulating food is one of the future directions of this technology."
A prototype of the Digital Taste Interface (Nimesha Ranasinghe)
A prototype of the Digital Taste Interface (Nimesha Ranasinghe)
Previous attempts to create “taste TV” have largely been unsuccessful as research has concentrated on using chemicals released by a computer.
This means such technology requires a large reservoir of chemicals required to produce different tastes that can be mixed together and would need to be regularly replenished.
Using electrodes allows tastes to be sent digitally without the need for messy and expensive chemical interfaces.
Dr Ranasinghe said: “Using chemicals in an interactive system is unrealistic since a set of chemicals is difficult to store and manipulate.
“Furthermore, the chemical stimulation of taste is analogous in nature, making it impractical to use this approach for digital interactions.
“Therefore, it is evident that a new non-chemical approach is required to achieve digital control over the sensation of taste."
comment;
We taste with our tongue, we experience flavour with our olfactory senses, based in the space behind the nose. That's why things don't have much flavour when you've a heavy cold. Stimulating taste buds on the tongue to detect sweet, sour, etc, won't do a thing to help experience flavour. Another misleading article from the Telegraph's Lack of Science department.
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