#meta cookie

A new system allows you to turn your bland cookie into a flavoured cookie!

BY: Pooja. Thakkar | 

TAGS: flavored cookie, Meta Cookie, plain cookie, University of Tokyo, Virtual reality

Convert your plain cookie into a flavoured one with the new system!Share

What kind of cookie would you like to have today? walnut, chocolate-chip? Maybe a strawberry or tea-flavored biscuit? Researchers in Japan have created a virtual reality system that turns a plain old cookie into a cornucopia of looks and tastes. Wouldn’t that be a treat?

The system works by fooling the eyes and nose with visions and scents that turn a bland, flat-baked treat into one of more than a half dozen styles of cookie.

To try it out, users don a high-tech skullcap outfitted with a camera, screen, and seven pump-driven tubes filled with scented air.

The system, called Meta Cookie, overlays images of several types of cookies on plain cookies piled on a plate. Once the user selects one, the system pumps air near the user's nose with the corresponding scent. The power of the scent is adjusted as the user brings the cookie closer to their mouth.

Upon taking a bite, the user really thinks the cookie is isn't just a bland treat, but whatever the system turned it into. The research team, led by Takuji Narumi at the University of Tokyo, report that users are regularly fooled by the system.

The team doesn't yet have a commercial market for their system, But if and when they do have, I’m sure not only the Kids but even the adults may equally seek pleasure out of this system.

Amplify’d from news.discovery.com

Takuji Narumi and her colleagues created a virtual reality system, dubbed Meta Cookie, that works with smell and sight to manipulate users' perceptions of the taste of a cookie. Participants wore a special mask that produces sights and smells and were given a plain cookie. They were shown an image of a certain type of cookie and then exposed to that scent. Researchers were able to choose from seven cookie scents, ranging from almond to strawberry to chocolate and maple.

The cookie's texture does provide an undeniable advantage for users of Meta Cookie. Even though people were eating a cookie with no flavor, it still had the texture of the supposed cookie, making it difficult for a person to believe they were eating anything else.

Read more at news.discovery.com