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24th Dec 2021

A lickable TV screen you can taste has been created in Japan

Danny Jones

Lickable TV invented in Japan

…What?

In case you ever needed a reminder you are living in the 21st century, the age where technology that is created simply because it can be, a lickable TV screen has now been invented in Japan.

As reported by Reuters, Homei Miyashita, a professor at Meiji University, has created a television that can literally imitate the flavour of whatever is on the screen. Probably not the best timing re: Covid but we’ll let him off.

Fittingly dubbed ‘Taste the TV’, this creation makes ‘Smell-O-Vision‘ look like those paper cups connected by a string that you used to pretend was a phone when you were a kid. Just think, in a way, with this you could finally eat the things you see on TV.

The technology essentially works as a spray that contains the specific flavour you want to taste, before being dispersed onto the screen for people to enjoy. Miyashita said he wants to make a platform that “can be distributed as ‘taste content'”, adding that the experience is “the same as watching a movie or listening to a song you like”.

The professor went on to say that while he believes the lickable TV could be used for training chefs and sommeliers through distance learning in the current climate, there is the potential for a commercial version of the device which would cost around ¥100,000 JPY – approximately £650.

This isn’t the only piece of gustatory technology this Japanese genius has come up with: back in 2016, he and a team of researchers created an electric fork that makes food taste better, leading to Tokyo’s ‘No Salt Restaurant’ being booked up with people wanting to try it out.

Can he sort us something in time to save us from dry turkey on Christmas day?

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