Vocktail Lets You Mix Virtual Cocktails

Nimesha Ranasinghe and his team of researchers from National University of Singapore have come up with a device called the “Vocktail,” which lets you virtually turn water into any cocktail you can imagine.

The system consists of a cocktail glass that fits nicely into a 3D-printed structure, which holds all the electronic components for multisensory stimulation. The Vocktail uses an RGB lighting arrangement to cause an expectation of a certain flavor. Then when you start actually drinking, silver electrodes around the rim of the glass stimulate the tongue in order to give salty, sour or bitter tastes. Finally, an aroma is released near the nose via three micro air-pumps and scent cartridges.

Users experience virtual flavors when they view the color-overlaid beverage, when they inhale the emitted scents and when their tongues are stimulated by the electric taste sensations during drinking (in addition to the original flavor of the beverage).The simultaneous perception of these stimuli creates augmented flavor sensations.

Drinks are “mixed” using an accompanying app, which allows you to configure each of the stimuli over Bluetooth. You can even share your favorite concoction with friends or save it as a preset for next time.

You can see a demonstration of the Vocktail below, and read the team’s entire research paper here.

[h/t: Digital Trends]