Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) enhance digital experiences by seamlessly blending them with the real world, offering powerful visual and auditory interactions. However, one crucial sensory dimension has remained largely unexplored—taste.
Zhaoqian Xie, Dalian University of Technology, China, Jinghua Li, The Ohio State University, and colleagues have introduced e-Taste, a bio-integrated gustatory interface that enables remote transmission and recreation of taste sensations, bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds.
The e-Taste system operates through a combination of sensors, actuators, and wireless communication, allowing users to experience taste digitally. A sensor captures the chemical composition of a given substance, such as a soup, by detecting key taste components—glucose (sweet), citric acid (sour), sodium chloride (salty), magnesium chloride (bitter), and glutamate (umami). This data is then transmitted to a remote e-Taste device, where an electromagnetic microfluidic actuator releases corresponding tastants onto the user’s tongue via a hydrogel-based interface. The result is a nearly precise replication of the original taste, allowing users to “taste” food remotely without consuming it.
This technology has potential applications across multiple industries. In VR/AR, e-Taste can enhance immersive gaming, digital tourism, and virtual dining experiences. In the food and beverage sector, it can facilitate remote flavor testing, reducing the need for physical samples. Additionally, the system can support biomedical research, aiding studies on gustatory perception and taste disorders. e-Taste may also find applications in human-machine interfaces, providing sensory feedback in assistive technologies.
While current prototypes require direct tongue contact with the e-Taste interface, future advancements could introduce alternative delivery methods, such as dissolvable films or aerosol-based diffusion. As this technology evolves, it could fundamentally transform how people experience food, entertainment, and even healthcare.
- A sensor-actuator–coupled gustatory interface chemically connecting virtual and real environments for remote tasting,
Shulin Chen, Yizhen Jia, Bowen Duan, Tzu-Li Liu, Qi Wang, Xiao Xiao, Prasad Nithianandam, Xi Tian, Chunyu Yang, Changsheng Wu, Zhaoqian Xie, Jinghua Li,
Science Advances 2025.
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr4797
