7 Apr 2012

Tasting with Sounds

posted in: Research |

It’s now an accepted fact that our sense of taste is intrinsically linked to our sense of smell. But scientists now think that it can be heavily influenced by what we hear, too. Time to reach for Sounds of Skillet Bacon Vol. 2. The Smithsonian reports a new study published in the journal Food Quality and Science which investigated the relationships between music and taste. In a blinded experiment, 20 tasters reported that high-pitched music made toffees taste sweeter compared to low music—even though they were exactly the same candies. Elsewhere, a series of experiments carried out at the University of Oxford asked volunteers to match wines, milk and other foods with particular musical notes. They found that that sweet-tasting desserts tend to be matched up with high notes, while deeply savory dishes tend to be paired with brassy, low-pitched sounds. Charles Spence—an expert on multi-sensory experiences—has found that it’s even possible to sway our experiences of taste. Speaking to The Smithsonian, he explained: “We’ve shown that if you take something with competing flavors, something like bacon-and-egg ice cream, we were able to change people’s perception of the dominant flavor-is it bacon, or egg?-simply by playing sizzling bacon sounds or farmyard chicken noises.” So, what’s happening? Are we primed by advertising? Is it something to do with the way parents offer up food? Actually, it’s unclear to all these researchers why the effect exists. Which probably means you shouldn’t worry about it too much—just stick on your favorite falsetto-laden track and shovel candies down your throat. They’ll taste all the sweeter for it. [The Smithsonian]

2 Apr 2012

Cool Japanese Research: Interactive Kissing Display

posted in: Research |

I am glad to be part of a university that develops crazy ideas. In the latest crazy research here is a screen which is used for interactive kissing.

By sensing the distance between the user and the display, this photo of a person reacts when kissed. This system is currently under development by a research group at Keio University and they are also considering how to utilize this system in a commercial context.

“I’m a big fan of pop idols, and I have posters of them in my room. It bugged me that the posters didn’t move at all. We built this system because we thought, if a poster could move to match people’s movements, that would be interactive and fun.”

“This system is very simple. There’s an ultrasound sensor here, to detect how far away your head is. As you approach the sensor, the picture changes. When you get closer, the picture becomes a kissing face, and when you move away, it becomes a blushing face.”

“The current system only produces visual changes, but we could also include the scent of shampoo from the person’s hair, or a lemon-flavored film on the lips, or a speaker that whispers “I love you.” People who’ve tried this system advised us to do those things, so we think there’s still plenty to be done. We’ve learned a lot from talking to users.”

From now on, the researchers plan to develop an iPad application. For this, they’re considering other sensing methods, such as using image recognition via the camera, or using a light sensor that reacts to the shadows created when the user approaches.

“We think we could get pop idols to actually pose for this, and sell it as an application, or it could be used in digital signage. I think people would be really attracted by a face that gives a kiss as they walk past.”

(via Interactive Poster That Loves Being Kissed – DigInfo TV – Tech News Videos From Japan | The latest technology, products, gadgets and scientific research direct from Tokyo)

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
15 Mar 2012

Test_Lab: Smell This! Witness the decomposition of Chanel No. 5, sniff out a partner, taste with your nostrils, and more treats for the nose.

posted in: Research |

Test_Lab: Smell This! Witness the decomposition of Chanel No. 5, sniff out a partner, taste with your nostrils, and more treats for the nose.

This lab by Maki Ueda sounds very interesting. Try to join if you are in Rotterdam or on line with the streaming. Maki Ueda taught a guest lecture in my class at Keio University and I have a strong appreciation of her work and philosophy. I agree with her that smell is a vital human communication.

More on the event: “Would you rather give up your sense of smell or your smartphone? A recent worldwide study conducted among youths aged 16 – 22 found that more than half of them would chose technology over their own sense of smell. What good is a nose anyway when all your friends, entertainment and sources of information are online? This edition of Test_Lab will reveal that your sense of smell might actually be the best reason to stay connected to the physical world. While the communication industry is fixated on visual and aural communication, it is the work of pioneering olfactory artists that points out the significance and potential of communication through smell.

In this edition of V2_’s Test_Lab, Maki Ueda performs a live experiment in decomposing the legendary fragrance Chanel No. 5, Susana Soares shows you how to sniff out a partner, and one of the world’s greatest scent experts, Sissel Tolaas, lets you taste with your nostrils. Art-historian Caro Verbeek kicks off the evening with a talk on smelly art, accompanied by a genuine AJ (Aroma Jockey).

Smell all of this at Test_Lab!

This event will be streamed live on

www.v2.nl. March 15, 20:00 CET”

15 Mar 2012

Electric stimulus to face

posted in: Research |

Another wonderful and weird work from Japanese media artist Daito Manabe. By using electrodes one can moves one’s face and control another person’s face. I really like the use of haptics for affective communication. This is a comment on how we can often wish we can influence other people’s mood and therefore bodies directly.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
15 Mar 2012

particles at YCAM

posted in: Research |

Particles

Daito Manabe + Motoi Ishibashi
http://particles.ycam.jp/en/

One of our KMD students, Kensuke Fujishiro, worked on this project. It is a beautiful work which I think is a wonderful analogy of the importance of physicality and being analog even in our modern computer world. It combines the light inside a physical ball with a track and all connected and controlled wirelessly by a computer. Somehow the physicality and analog nature is so much more beautiful than seeing a particle cloud on a computer screen.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
16 Feb 2012

Brainstorming Doesn’t Really Work : The New Yorker

posted in: Research |

A few years ago, Isaac Kohane, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, published a study that looked at scientific research conducted by groups in an attempt to determine the effect that physical proximity had on the quality of the research. He analyzed more than thirty-five thousand peer-reviewed papers, mapping the precise location of co-authors. Then he assessed the quality of the research by counting the number of subsequent citations. The task, Kohane says, took a “small army of undergraduates” eighteen months to complete. Once the data was amassed, the correlation became clear: when coauthors were closer together, their papers tended to be of significantly higher quality. The best research was consistently produced when scientists were working within ten metres of each other; the least cited papers tended to emerge from collaborators who were a kilometre or more apart. “If you want people to work together effectively, these findings reinforce the need to create architectures that support frequent, physical, spontaneous interactions,” Kohane says. “Even in the era of big science, when researchers spend so much time on the Internet, it’s still so important to create intimate spaces.

Brainstorming Doesn’t Really Work : The New Yorker

The more I work with the internet, and the more I do research in interactive media, the more I have realized, and seen studies, which show that interaction through internet has some basic limitation. It seems that even in today’s highly connected internet society, physical presence is critical. This study shows that for academic collaboration the best research occurs when the authors are highly physically present in the range of metres. It is my hypothesis (and this needs further academic research) that this is partly because we communicate through all of our senses (including touch, taste, and smell) and through non-logical emotions. These still cannot be communicated effectively through the internet.

16 Feb 2012

Brainstorming Doesn’t Really Work: The New Yorker

posted in: Research |

Jones’s explanation is that scientific advances have led to a situation where all the remaining problems are incredibly hard. Researchers are forced to become increasingly specialized, because there’s only so much information one mind can handle. And they have to collaborate, because the most interesting mysteries lie at the intersections of disciplines. “A hundred years ago, the Wright brothers could build an airplane all by themselves,” Jones says. “Now Boeing needs hundreds of engineers just to design and produce the engines.” The larger lesson is that the increasing complexity of human knowledge, coupled with the escalating difficulty of those remaining questions, means that people must either work together or fail alone. But if brainstorming is useless, the question still remains: What’s the best template for group creativity?

Brainstorming Doesn’t Really Work : The New Yorker

This very interesting article in the New Yorker succinctly summarizes why interdisciplinary fields are the most interesting in today’s society. This is because we have effectively solved most human and technology problems that are important in the industrial age of the 20th century. In the 21st century the remaining problems are very challenging, and are at the boundaries of disciplines. This is why areas such as media design are much more interesting that traditional disciplines. When I used to read some of the research output or attend some faculty talks in my Electrical and Computer Engineering department, I found most of it mind-numbingly boring. The kind of academic papers and research topics that were so incremental and of almost no interest or impact to general society. Now I find I am constantly challenged and amazed and presented with new ideas by both faculty and students who come from diverse areas such as design, business, management – and technology as myself. I still find hard core geeky hacking interesting for myself, but now I know the problems in society that all of society talks about are the most interesting and most important.

5 Feb 2012

Meta Cookie

posted in: Research |

I have been teaching a class on multi-sensory communication, with a focus on how smell and taste can be used for a new generation of communication media. Smell and taste are senses which are highly affected and cross related with the other senses such as vision and sound. This work, made in Japan, which I showed in the class changes the appearance and smell of a plain cookie, and the person can experience a different flavor.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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