Embedded Files
What if you could season a plain food digitally?
What if you could season a plain food digitally?
Meta Cookie
Meta Cookie
Background and story
Background and story
This experience is designed to augment reality through the use of new technology. In this case, through a carefully engineered multisensory AR headset, users can modify perception of a plain cookie such that it is interpreted as, say, a chocolate cookie. Researchers and practitioners alike have been interested in augmenting food experiences through emerging technology. Carried out at the University of Tokyo, Japan, project researchers explored the augmentation of a cookie’s flavour through a multisensory AR experience called Meta Cookie, which superimposes visual and smell information on a plain cookie in order to change its perceived flavour.
Photo of the AR flavour display that augment different flavours onto a plane cookie.
Photo credit: Takuji Narumi.
Impression: A flavoured cookie (though it is actually a plain cookie).
Event: Eating a digitally augmented plain cookie. This may also be broken down into several events when more than one augmentation is taking place and as such, people may interact with the same cookie, though through different augmentations, a number of times.
Receiver: Participants of an experimental study, which generally include university students and faculty, and also people from the general public.
Sensory elements: The experience involves the senses of sight, smell, taste, and touch. There are several combinations of visuals and aromas available to choose from, including those associated with chocolate, lemon, almond, tea, strawberry, and maple. The cookie itself has a characteristic sweet taste and a evokes a particular mouthfeel.
Concepts: Spatial, temporal, and semantic congruence are key in the creation of this multisensory experience. For example, spatial and temporal congruence are achieved by increased aroma intensity when the cookie is taken closer to the user. On the other hand, the look and aromas are combined following a given flavour (semantic congruence), such as chocolate.
Enabling technology: The technology involves two cameras, a head-mounted display (HMD), and a multi-scent delivery device. The cookie has a marker that is recognized by the camera in order to superimpose a given visual appearance to the cookie, seen through the HMD. An air pump sprays out the smell of the chosen cookie, increasing its concentration as the system ‘sees’ the cookie approaching the user’s nose.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse