Nimesha Ranasinghe

Simulating the sensation of taste for immersive experiences

With the continuous advancements in computing and media, the technology has widened to include the multisensory experiences in digital interactions. Although there are quite a lot of systems in auditory, vision, and haptic domains, remarkably few attempts has been made in the sense of taste. Thus, in this paper, we discuss the importance of the sensation of taste as a form of immersive media and the current problems of simulating taste sensations digitally. Furthermore, we review various state of the art technologies and approaches for simulating the sensation of taste. Finally, we present a technology to simulate the sensation of taste electronically using electrical and thermal stimulation of the human tongue to facilitate immersive digital experiences.

Sensing the future of HCI: touch, taste, and smell user interfaces

Touch, taste, and smell are an underexplored design space in the context of interactive experiences. By understanding the ways in which our senses process information and how they relate to one another, it will be possible to create richer experiences for humantechnology interactions. We need to design interfaces that allow the stimulation of unexplored sensory inputs as well as interfaces that take into account the relationships between the senses. Digital Taste Interface is a method for simulating the sensation of taste by actuating the human tongue through electrical and thermal stimulation. AromaShooter is a smell-delivery device, contains six scent cartridges and connects to a computer via USB. Taste+ is an interface where the user can augment the flavors of food and beverages by applying weak and controlled electrical pulses on their tongue using electronically enhanced everyday utensils such as spoons and beverage bottles. It is crucial to determine the meaningful design space for multisensory interactive experiences. At the same time, it is also key to understand the unique properties of each sensory modality before designing for their sensory integration in the design of interactive systems.

Tongue Mounted Interface for Digitally Actuating the Sense of Taste

Most of the systems for generating taste sensations are based on blending different chemicals appropriately, and there are less proven approaches to stimulate the sense of taste digitally. In this paper, a method to digitally stimulate the sense of taste is introduced and demonstrated based on electrical and thermal stimulation on human tongue. Thus, two digital control systems are presented to control taste sensations and their intensities effectively on the tongue. The effects of most persuading factors such as current, frequency, and temperature have been accounted to noninvasively stimulate the tongue. The initial experimental results indicate that sour (strong), bitter (mild), and salty(mild) are the main sensations, which can be evoked while there are evidences of sweet sensation too. Based on the results of the Tongue Mounted Digital Taste Interface, we have then developed another system which named as the Digital Sour Lollipop to effectively control the sour taste digitally. Initial experimental results of this system show the controllability of sour taste up to three levels of intensities using the electrical stimulation on human tongue.

Taste/IP: the sensation of taste for digital communication

In this paper, we present a new methodology for integrating the sense of taste with the existing digital communication domain. First, we discuss existing problems and limitations for integrating the sense of taste as a digital communication media. Then, to assess this gap, we present a solution with three core modules: the transmitter, form of communication, and receiver. The transmitter is a mobile application, where the sender formulates a taste message to send. Then, for communication, we present a new extensible markup language (XML) format, the TasteXML (TXML) to specify the format of taste messages. As the receiver (actuator), we introduce Digital Taste Stimulator, a novel method for stimulating taste sensations on human. Initial user experiments and qualitative feedbacks were discussed mainly focusing on the Digital Taste Stimulator. We conclude with a brief overview of future aspects of this technology and possibilities on other application domains.

Touch, Taste, & Smell User Interfaces: The Future of Multisensory HCI

The senses we call upon when interacting with technology are very restricted. We mostly rely on vision and audition, increasingly harnessing touch, whilst taste and smell remain largely underexploited. In spite of our current knowledge about sensory systems and sensory devices, the biggest stumbling block for progress concerns the need for a deeper understanding of peoples multisensory experiences in HCI. It is essential to determine what tactile, gustatory, and olfactory experiences we can design for, and how we can meaningfully stimulate such experiences when interacting with technology. Importantly, we need to determine the contribution of the different senses along with their interactions in order to design more effective and engaging digital multisensory experiences. Finally, it is vital to understand what the limitations are that come into play when users need to monitor more than one sense at a time. The aim of this workshop is to deepen and expand the discussion on touch, taste, and smell within the CHI community and promote the relevance of multisensory experience design and research in HCI.

Digital Lollipop: Studying Electrical Stimulation on the Human Tongue to Simulate Taste Sensations

Among the five primary senses, the sense of taste is the least explored as a form of digital media applied in Human--Computer Interface. This article presents an experimental instrument, the Digital Lollipop, for digitally simulating the sensation of taste (gustation) by utilizing electrical stimulation on the human tongue. The system is capable of manipulating the properties of electric currents (magnitude, frequency, and polarity) to formulate different stimuli. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method, the system was experimentally tested in two studies. The first experiment was conducted using separate regions of the human tongue to record occurrences of basic taste sensations and their respective intensity levels. The results indicate occurrences of sour, salty, bitter, and sweet sensations from different regions of the tongue. One of the major discoveries of this experiment was that the sweet taste emerges via an inverse-current mechanism, which deserves further research in the future. The second study was conducted to compare natural and artificial (virtual) sour taste sensations and examine the possibility of effectively controlling the artificial sour taste at three intensity levels (mild, medium, and strong). The proposed method is attractive since it does not require any chemical solutions and facilitates further research opportunities in several directions including human--computer interaction, virtual reality, food and beverage, as well as medicine.

Virtual Lemonade: Let's Teleport Your Lemonade!

This paper presents a novel methodology to digitally share the flavor experience of a glass of lemonade (or other similar beverages) remotely. The proposed method utilizes a sensor to capture valuable information (primarily, the color and the corresponding pH value) of the lemonade and a customized tumbler to virtually simulate these properties using plain water. Thus, the system consists of three main components: 1) the lemonade sensor, 2) the communication protocol, and 3) a customized tumbler, acting as the lemonade simulator. Initially, the sensor captures the color and the pH value of the lemonade and encodes this information based on an established communication protocol for wireless transmission. On receiving the information from the sensor, the lemonade simulator overlays the color of the drink on plain water using an RGB Light Emitting Diode (LED) and simulates sour taste sensations on the users tongue via electrical stimulation. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate this novel approach of digitally teleporting a glass of lemonade: 1) to assess the pre-taste perceptions based on the users visual perceptions of the colors (real vs. virtual lemonade) and 2) to assess the taste sensations (real vs. virtual lemonade). By simulating the experience of drinking a glass of lemonade through the digital reconstruction of the beverages main visual and taste factors, the results from these experiments will be able to justify the feasibility of teleporting a glass of lemonade using this novel methodology.

FunRasa: an interactive drinking platform

In this paper, we describe an interactive drinking platform, FunRasa, which digitally expands ones drinking experience. The system uses two methods: electrical stimulation on users tongue and superimpose virtual color onto the actual drink, to expand the taste sensations of the drink. The system consists of a glass cup, an electronic platform with RGB LEDs, and a specially designed straw interface with two silver electrodes. When a user uses the straw, his tongue touches the silver electrodes (both lower and upper surfaces of the tip of the tongue) and is thus electrically stimulated when drinking. The user has the freedom to change the virtual color of the drink along with the magnitude of the current using two mechanical dials. Furthermore, we present several initial discussions on the user experience through a workshop that we conducted and several future usage scenarios of this technology.

Ambiotherm: Enhancing Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality by Simulating Real-World Environmental Conditions

In this paper, we present and evaluate Ambiotherm, a wearable accessory for Head Mounted Displays (HMD) that provides thermal and wind stimuli to simulate real-world environmental conditions, such as ambient temperatures and wind conditions, to enhance the sense of presence in Virtual Reality (VR). Ambiotherm consists of a Ambient Temperature Module that is attached to the users neck, a Wind Simulation Module focused towards the users face, and a Control Module utilizing Bluetooth communication. We demonstrate Ambiotherm with two VR environments, a hot desert, and a snowy mountain, to showcase the different types of simulated environmental conditions. We conduct several studies to 1) address design factors of the system and 2) evaluate Ambiotherms effect on factors related to a users sense of presence. Our findings show that the addition of wind and thermal stimuli significantly improves sensory and realism factors, contributing towards an enhanced sense of presence when compared to traditional VR experiences.

Virtual ingredients for food and beverages to create immersive taste experiences

This paper presents a new technology that overlays virtual taste sensations on food and beverages while eating and drinking. This additional layer of taste sensation enables modifying the existing taste sensations (flavors) of food and beverages virtually. To achieve this technology, we primarily use weak and controlled electrical pulses on the tip of the tongue (while eating and drinking). The ability of this technology to simulate primary taste sensations such as salty, sour, and bitter has made us able to merge it into everyday eating and drinking utensils such as the spoon and beverage bottle, thus to augment the taste sensations of food and beverages. In addition to electrical pulses, we change the color of the beverage using an RGB Light Emitting Diode (LED). Two prototype systems produced with this technology, Spoon+ and Bottle+ are explained in this paper. First, we present a comprehensive technical description of these utensils. Then, we detailed a user experiment conducted to study the effectiveness of our approach. Through these two prototype systems, we discuss the impact of this technology to create immersive taste experiences when consuming food and beverages. With focus on new features and improvements of several limitations of the existing systems, we present our future vision that enables merging of this technology into more appliances thus making a platform for creating virtual food and beverage ingredients.