It looks like I’ve been made a fool of though. Wrap your head around this, folks: a Japanese professor, Homei Miyashita, has created a lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavors, Reuters reports. Hilariously, the device is called “Taste the TV” or “TTTV” in short. I can’t quite straighten it in my mind. Imagine inching towards your TV, sticking your tongue out, and then… licking it? Why? I ask again: why? For Miyashita, this kind of tech creates a multi-sensory experience that can improve how people connect and interact with the outside word, especially in COVID times. “The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” he explained. He also believes that his ‘tasty’ TV screen can be used for testing games and quizzes, or distance learning for sommeliers and cooks.
How on Earth does it work?
The TV screen uses a carousel of ten flavor canisters, which spray in various combinations to create the taste of a particular food. Then, the flavor sample rolls on a hygienic film over the TV. The viewer — or taster, I guess — then licks it. The TTTV is currently a prototype, but even if it turns into a commercial product, I won’t buy it. I refuse to replace my original tasting experience with a lickable spray-flavored hygienic film. And no, I hope we never reach a “tele-taste” future, when we’ll be flirting more with our TV screen than with an actual person. What I really want is to be able to reach through my screen, grab a dish I like, and put it on my table. Come back to me when this is a reality.
