Would you like to taste fish soup in VR? Me neither, but this electronic tongue does it anyway

Sometimes I rue my position as the PC Gamer hardware team honorary weirdo. Because while I’m naturally drawn to the unusual, the interesting, and the downright bizarre, it means I sometimes have to write about bits of tech that gross me out—and this VR-ready electronic tongue is doing just that.

A team of researchers at The Ohio State University have developed this monstro… interesting project to attempt to replicate realistic flavours for virtual reality experiences (via New Scientist). Essentially, open your mouth, insert this potentially gag-inducing electronic strip under your tongue, and delight in the experience of having artificially-flavoured hydrogels pumped into your most sensitive of areas.

Well, one of the most sensitive, anyway. The team has published its work under the catchy title of “A sensor-actuator–coupled gustatory interface chemically connecting virtual and real environments for remote tasting”, although they’ve realised it’s a bit of a mouthful (apologies) and instead chosen to call it the e-Taste system.

Delicious (or not so delicious) food is first analysed with sensors to detect flavours, which are then replicated via the oral insertion of several taste-inducing chemicals—these being sodium chloride for salty, citric acid for sour, glucose for sweet, magnesium chloride for bitter and glutamate for umami.

I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me hungrier than the thought of magnesium chloride and glutamate hydrogels being pumped under my tongue by an electronic strip. Time for lunch.

And I’m back. Apparently the system works relatively well, as 70% of a small test group of 10 people reported they experienced the same level of sourness as a real sample of sour food when compared to the artificial flavouring. Moving on to more complex flavours, 80% of test subjects reported they could distinguish between lemonade, cake, fried egg, fish soup, and coffee.

Not a great achievement, I would argue, as I reckon you couldn’t find two more totally disparate flavours than lemonade and fish soup. Still, it’s early days for the project, and perhaps the beginnings of a much tastier virtual reality future to come.

Or not, as the case may be. Speaking to New Scientist, professor Alan Chalmers of the University of Warwick points out that replicating flavours purely in the mouth has limited uses, as we humans use many of our senses together to perceive taste.

“Next time you have a strawberry, close your nose and eyes” says Chalmers, which sounds a bit like a romantic evening for one. “A strawberry is very sour, but it is perceived as sweet because of its aroma and the red colour. So if you send just sour across with their device, you will never know that it is actually from a strawberry.”

Deep, man. Still, the e-Taste system is not the first mouth-involving hardware we’ve covered over the years, taking its place next to Planet Licker and Kiss Racer, two games you control with a peripheral-linked tongue.

And as for the virtual reality uses here? I’m not sure my Skyrim VR experience would be enhanced by tasting every mid-dragon-fight wheel of cheese, although I’m prepared to change my mind under test conditions.

Actually, scratch that. You can keep your e-tongues to yourself, thanks very much—although I look forward to seeing a plethora of gagging attendees at VR booths during my next trade show visit. You’ll find me in the food hall, enjoying a lovely slice of cake and laughing myself sick.