ATLAS Professor听Ellen Yi-Luen Do's听听was featured on 鈥淢y听Future,鈥� a popular technology show aired on Hunan Satellite TV on Aug. 16, with the first 27 minutes of the 70-minute program devoted to Do鈥檚 team.听A professor of computer science and director of the ATLAS ACME (A Creativity Machine Environment) Lab, Ellen Do also directs the听Keio-NUS CUTE Center at the National University of Singapore where the Virtual Cocktail Project was launched.
During the show, which is viewed by 20 鈥� 40 million, audience members drank from the 鈥淢agic Water Glass鈥� (nickname听for the 鈥淰irtual Cocktail Project鈥�),听each experiencing a different taste (sour, bitter, or salty). Do explained听how the color of the drink combined with natural food aroma and digital simulation of taste (via two silver electrodes on a 3D printed glass) changes a person鈥檚 perceived taste. As听part of the show,听Do demonstrated听how an app is used to remotely control the cup via Bluetooth.
Afterwards, the host invited children from the audience to use the app to mix new flavors for others to try鈥攖hree blindfolded volunteers tasted听new flavors suggested by the audience, including听"Hot Pot听Flavored听Milk," "Tom Yum Flavored听Coffee" and "Black Pepper Coke."
Virtual Cocktail听is an interactive system capable of conveying taste, smell听and visual stimuli to augment flavor sensations. Its novelty lies in the ability to switch between taste modes (salty, bitter, sour) and aromas, allowing users to explore and experimentally create new flavors. Future applications include providing sensation to those who have lost their sense of taste and simulating sweetness for those trying to avoid sugary drinks.
A replay of 听can be viewed听(in Chinese, 2:34 - 26:31) on YouTube.听
Virtual Cocktail-related academic papers听
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Nimesha Ranasinghe, David Tolley, Thi Ngoc Tram Nguyen, Liangkun Yan, BarryChew,听Ellen Yi-Luen Do, 2018,听, in听, (in Press, available online 31 May 2018)听听
- Nimesha Ranasinghe, Thi Ngoc Tram Nguyen, Yan Liangkun, Lien-Ya Lin, David Tolley, and听Ellen Yi-Luen Do. 2017.听. InProceedings of the 2017 ACM on Multimedia Conference(MM '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1139-1147. DOI:听听(Mountain View, California, Oct.听23-27, 2017).
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