A digital lollipop is an electronic device that synthesizes
virtual tastes by stimulating the human tongue with electric currents. The device can produce four primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Digital lollipops were developed through research led by Nimesha Ranasinghe at the
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...
.
Design
According to Ranasinghe, "The system can manipulate the properties of electric currents
..to formulate different stimuli."
Additionally, his portfolio in 2013 mentioned that his team is "conducting experiments to analyze regional differences of the human tongue for electrical stimulation."
The devices generate
alternating current
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...
signals through a sliver electrode, stimulating the tongue's taste receptors to emulate the major taste components. It also produces small, varying amounts of heat to simulate food.
Eventually, the digital lollipop could aid
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...
patients by helping them "either enhance or suppress certain senses". It may also allow people with
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
to experience sweetness without increasing their blood sugar levels.
The National University of Singapore research team is developing Taste Over Internet Protocol (TOIP) that would allow taste information to be communicated between locations.
See also
*
Digital scent technology
*
Gustatory technology
References
Further reading
* Nimesha Ranasinghe, Hideaki Nii, Adrian Cheok, Ryohei Nakatsu, Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone, ''Digital Taste Lollipop: Studying Electrical Stimulation on Human Tongue to Simulate the Sensation of Taste'', International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (Elsevier), Jan 2013
* Nimesha Ranasinghe, Ryohei Nakatsu, Nii Hideaki, and Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone, ''Tongue Mounted Interface for Digitally Actuating the Sense of Taste'', in Proceedings of the 16th
International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), June 2012, pp. 80–87. , {{ISSN, 1550-4816
External links
Digital lollipop at Nimesha Ranasinghe's websiteVideo of the digital lollipop in use
Digital electronics
Flavor technology