The best VR headsets can act as a doorway to inhabiting the best PC games, with some companies going one step further with VR candles that stimulate your sense of smell. However, if you’re hungry for something more, a new device in Japan could offer a taste of the future (provided you’re fine with licking it).
As reported by Reuters, Japanese professor Homei Miyashita has cooked up a prototype lickable display that uses a combination of 10 flavour canisters to simulate the flavours of food. Miyashita says the goal of their ‘Taste the TV’ device 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”.
The weirdness of licking a screen aside, there are so many videogame delicacies we’d be curious to try. Imagine, in this strange new reality, if you were able to sample an authentic Skyrim sweet roll, or recently remastered grapes from Final Fantasy XIV? Although, to change mediums for a moment, we do wonder if the food from any Studio Ghibli film tastes as good as it looks.
Unfortunately, we probably won’t see Taste the TV make its ways into peoples’ homes, not only for how niche its market would be but also because it costs around ¥100,000 ($875~ USD / £650~ GBP) to make. Even if it were to become widely available, spending your money on the best gaming monitors would still be our recommendation.