News: Futuristic Flavor-Changing Meta Cookie

Like a scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this high-tech cookie offers 7 different flavors. The University of Tokyo's Tajuki Narumi and team presented the Wonka inspired augmented reality flavor-changing cookie at this year's SIGGRAPH computer graphics and animation conference in Los Angeles.

Via New Scientist:

"The device is worn over the user's head and can transform the taste of a plain cookie to any of seven flavours. It combines augmented reality technology with smells released by an air pump to trick the user's senses.

To create the effect, the team branded a plain cookie with a distinct logo that the headset tracks via a built-in camera. An air pump sprays out the smell of the chosen cookie, increasing its concentration as the system "sees" the cookie approaching the wearer's nose.

Meanwhile, a visual display in the headset shows an image of the chosen cookie, suggesting the correct texture for that flavour.

The combination of smell and visual texture combine to fool the user's sense of taste into thinking they are eating a flavoured cookie instead of the plain one."

Next on the list? Oh, please let it be the everlasting gobstopper.

• Previously, HowTo: Make Augmented Reality Cookies.
• Augmented Reality to Cure Cockroach Phobias.
• Augmented Reality Tattoo: Holographic Skin Art.