New Computers Aim to Tackle Taste Buds

(Image credit: IBM)


"In five years, computers will be able to construct never-before-heard-of recipes to delight palates - even those with health or dietary constraints - using foods' molecular structure," says Dr. Lav Varshney, a research scientist for IBM, in a new video for the company's annual 5 in 5 campaign. This year's campaign focuses on the five senses and a new era of computers based on cognitive systems.

Varshney chose to work with food because "It's so visceral, it's part of who we are. Everyone eats," he said.


The goal of the program is to "design food that tastes good that is flavorful but is also healthy," he said, "We've been using some ideas from culinary science and chemistry as well as psychology."


They use the flavor-pairing hypothesis to match flavors like black tea and bell peppers. The hypothesis is the idea that "in two ingredients that share a lot of flavor compounds, chemicals that make up the food, they typically go together in western cuisine."


"Various governments have imposed a lot of nutritional standards, school lunches have to meet these very stringent requirements and kids end up throwing away the food," said Varshney.



Varshney hopes that the machine will eventually be "Good enough that you can predict without testing."

Join the Discussion
blog comments powered by Disqus
You Might Also Like...