TV That Tastes Like Pizza Or Chocolate — Japan Professor Creates Lickable TV Screen That Mimics Food Flavours

Called ‘Taste the TV (TTTV)’, the device comes with a carousel of 10 flavour canisters that spray in combination to create the taste of a particular food.

This prototype lickable TV screen can mimic food flavours (Twitter/@HomeiMiyashita)

New Delhi: A professor in Japan has developed a prototype lickable TV screen that can mimic food flavours.

Called ‘Taste the TV (TTTV)’, the device comes with a carousel of 10 flavour canisters for creation of the taste of a particular food, Reuters reported.

The flavours from the canisters are sprayed in combination to create the taste, and the sample then rolls on to a hygienic film over a flat TV screen that the viewer can lick. 

OPEN異能vation2021でデモしてます！（今年は名前に反してクローズドなイベントになっちゃったようです） pic.twitter.com/S9UltYud6s

— 宮下芳明 Homei Miyashita (@HomeiMiyashita) December 15, 2021

The innovation is being seen as another step towards a multi-sensory viewing experience.

Quoting Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita, the report said this kind of technology could enhance the way people connect with the outside world in the Covid-19 era.

"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 was quoted as saying.

Miyashita has a team of 30-odd students who have been working on flavour-related devices. They have already produced a fork that makes food taste richer, the report said. 

Miyashita, however, said he built the TTTV prototype himself over the past year, adding that a commercial version of it would cost around $875 to make.

According to the report, he has been in talks with companies that can use his spray technology for devices like one that can apply a chocolate or pizza taste to a slice of bread.

Miyashita’s food vision includes creation of a platform where users can download tastes from all over the world, much like how music is enjoyed now.

Demonstrating TTTV for reporters, a Meiji student said she wanted the screen to taste sweet chocolate. An automated voice repeated the order, and flavour jets sprayed a sample onto a plastic sheet.

"It's kind of like milk chocolate," she was quoted as saying.