Currently, Internet and virtual reality communication is essentially
audio-visual. The next important breakthrough of the Internet will be
the communication and sharing of smell and taste experiences digitally.
Audio-visual stimuli are frequency based, and they can be easily
digitized and actuated. On the other hand, taste and smell stimuli are
based on chemical molecules, therefore, they are not easy to digitize or
actuate. To solve this problem, we are required to discover new digital
actuation technologies for taste and smell. The authors of this book
have experimented on developing digital actuation devices for several
years.
This book will provide a complete overview of the importance of
digitizing taste and smell, prior works, proposed technologies by the
authors, other state of the art research, advantages and limitations of
the proposed methods, and future applications. We expect digital taste
and smell technologies will revolutionize the field of multisensory
augmented reality and open up new interaction possibilities in different
disciplines such as Human Computer Interaction, Communication, and
Augmented and Virtual Reality.