The Wizard of Taste: Demonstrating Multisensory Eating with Electrcial Taste and Bone-conduction Auditory Seasoning

Research on electrical taste in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) has expanded opportunities for perceptible digital dining augmentations that become apparent only after ingestion. Electrical taste stimulation can evoke sensations such as sourness and saltiness, but its perceptual range remains limited. Meanwhile, auditory seasoning leverages crossmodal correspondences to modulate taste experiences through sound, suggesting opportunities for dining augmentation. To extend multisensory eating interactions, we present a spoon-based interface, "The Wizard of Taste", that combines electrical taste stimulation with auditory seasoning. To ensure ingestion-contingent augmentation, we employ bone conduction so that electrical taste and sound become perceptible primarily when the spoon is in the mouth. We demonstrate this approach through three scenes—happy, scary, and calming—each paired with a classic Spanish food item (churros, chocolate, and flan). These scenes aim to illustrate how integrating electrical taste and bone-conduction audio can create engaging, playful, and private dining experiences.