Virtual Flavor: High-Fidelity Simulation of Real Flavor Experiences
Alan Chalmers, Danel Zholzhanova, Tarunya Arun, Ali Asadipour
Abstract
Food and drink are key parts of our lives. While virtual reality has the potential to provide a high-fidelity simulation of real experiences in virtual worlds, the incorporation of flavor appreciation within these virtual experiences has largely been ignored. This article introduces a virtual flavor device to simulate real flavor experiences. The goal is to provide virtual flavor experiences, using food-safe chemicals for the three components of a flavor (taste, aroma, mouthfeel), which are perceived as "indistinguishable" from the equivalent real experience. Furthermore, because we are delivering a simulation, the same device can be used to take a user on a "flavor discovery journey" from a start flavor to a new, preferred flavor by adding or removing any amount of the components. In the first experiment, participants (N = 28) were exposed to real and virtual samples of orange juice, and the health product, rooibos tea, and asked to rate their similarity. The second experiment investigated how participants (N = 6) could move within "flavor space" from one flavor to another. The results show that it is possible to simulate, with a high degree of precision, a real flavor experience, and precisely controlled "flavor discovery journeys" can be undertaken using virtual flavors.