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Magic Leap, Microsoft’s HoloLens, and Oculus VR hope to fool our eyes. A small team of designers, engineers, and chefs have cooked up a “gastronomical virtual reality experience” that uses head-mounted displays, 3-D printers, and food science to trick our taste buds.
Magic Leap、微软的 HoloLens 还有欧酷拉（Oculus VR）都想欺骗我们的双眼。一小队设计师、工程师和厨师却烹制出了使用头戴式显示、3D打印和食品科学来欺骗我们的味蕾的“虚拟现实美食体验”。
Project Nourished combines brightly colored experimental cuisine, crafted from agar and pectin, with VR simulations intended to make those meager morsels seem tastier than they really are. If creator Jinsoo An succeeds, diners will don a virtual reality headset and be transported to a place where the Jello-like wedge placed before them is transformed into a sumptuous slice of apple pie.
Project Nourished把用琼脂和果胶制成的颜色鲜亮的实验菜肴与虚拟现实仿真技术相结合，让那些可怜的小块食物看起来更美味。如果发明人安辰浂成功了，食客们将戴上虚拟现实头部套装被传送到一个让那些摆在他们面前的果冻一样的小块食物变成一块奢华的苹果派的地方。
Two things inspired Project Nourished. First, a scene in Hook where a grown Peter Pan remembers how to use his sense of imagination to turn bowls of colorful goop into a gourmet meal. Second, An’s stepfather is diabetic and has had to cut some of his favorite foods from his diet. An’s goal is to provide a savory simulation without spiking blood sugar. “Even though the food is completely imaginary, there is a sense of joy, happiness and being part of a family,” says An. “We want this happiness to be the focal point of our experience.”
两件事给了 Project Nourished 灵感。第一个是《铁钩船长》中的一个场景。长大了的彼得潘想起了怎样用他的想象力把五彩浆变成美味大餐。第二件事是，安辰浂的继父患有糖尿病，不得不避免食用一些他喜欢的食物。安辰浂的目标是实现一种不升高血糖的味觉模拟。“尽管食物完全是虚拟的，但这是一种愉悦、幸福和作为家庭一份子的感觉。”安辰浂说，“我们希望这种幸福感是我们这项体验的核心。”
Simulating food has an uncanny valley problem, one An decided to design around by making his virtual victuals distinct from the menu items they’re meant to mimic. “We tackled this by making the faux foods look considerably different from the actual foods, while making it somewhat recognizable,” he says. “This ensured that the users don’t expect the foods to taste and feel in certain way, because it won’t be 100 percent.”
仿真食物也面临恐怖谷问题。针对这个问题，安辰浂决定将他的虚拟食品制作得和被仿制的食品不太一样。“我们把仿真食品做得和真实食品看上去不太一样，但又能让人看出来被仿制的食品是什么。我们通过这种办法来解决这个问题。”他说，“这保证了用户不会对将品尝的食物产生特定的味道和感觉的期待，因为它不会是100%还原的。”
Texture is a critical culinary consideration and An’s team is working to recreate the mouthfeel of sushi, steak, and apple pie using natural, low-calorie ingredients. “Some of our ingredients were inspired by vegan and allergy-free cooking since vegan and food allergy communities have already done a lot of experiments trying to mimic various types of foods that they are not able to eat,” says An. “For example, we are experimenting with nutritious yeast and shiitake mushroom powder to recreate dry-aged and umami flavors in our faux steak.”
质感是烹饪中的重要问题。安辰浂的团队正尝试用天然的低热量配料重现寿司、牛排和苹果派的口感。“我们的有些配方是受素食和防过敏烹饪的启发，因为素食主义者和食物过敏群体已经做了很多模仿他们不能吃的各种食物的实验。”安辰浂说，“比如，我们正在试验用营养酵母和香菇粉来让我们的仿牛排重现干式熟成的风味和鲜味。”
Project Nourished isn’t the only team pursuing this goal. Researchers Hiromi Nakamura and Nimesha Ranasinghe have been experimenting with tongue-based interfaces that can simulate sweet, salty, and savory flavors by sending an electrical current into taste buds. “While the research findings were quite extraordinary, we decided to move away from this direction since most people would be freaked out if we told them we are going to send electrical current through their tongue,” says An.
Project Nourished 并不是追逐这个目标的唯一团队。中村裕美和 Nimesha Ranasinghe 等研究者也在研究通过向味蕾发送电流来模拟甜、咸、鲜等味道的基于舌头的交互界面。“尽管这些研究成果非常出色，我们还是决定不走这个方向，因为如果我们告诉他们我们将向他们的舌头传送电流，大多数人都会被吓疯。”安辰浂说。
An aromatic diffuser is employed to amplify the olfactory elements of the experience, turning scented oils into pleasing aromas. “Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking into a bakery with fresh breads and pies. We want that experience to be replicated in our pie-eating experience,” says An. “So far, we have tried turning beer, broth, herb and fruit-infused water into fine mist, and they worked quite nicely.”
一种芳香扩散器被用来提升体验中的嗅觉因素，将芳香油变成怡人的香味。“闭上你的眼镜，想像你正走进一间放着刚出炉的面包和派的面包房。我们希望这种体验能在我们的派品尝体验中重现。”安辰浂说，“到目前为止，我们已经尝试了将啤酒、肉汤、香料和水果味的水制成气雾，它们很成功。”
The Project Nourished team loves cooking, eating, and knows it will be a long time before VR can compete with Per Se. But that’s no reason not to push the boundaries. “After experimenting with sous vide and molecular gastronomy, I wanted to see if there are other ways for us to consume food,” says An. “Some of these ideas can be quite scary or seem far out, but I think designers, technologists and culinary professionals should start thinking about these implications so that we can make more conscious decisions down the line. One thing we should never do is to fear.”
Project Nourished 团队热爱烹饪和美食，他们也知道虚拟现实要想要和 Per Se 餐厅比拼还有很长的路要走。但是，没有理由停滞不前。“试验过真空低温烹调和分子烹饪之后，我想知道我们有没有其他办法来利用食物。”安辰浂说，“有些想法可能很恐怖或很诡异，但我认为设计师、技术人员和烹饪专家应该开始考虑这些应用，让我们将来能做出更多合理的选择。我们唯一绝对不该做的事就是畏惧。”
