A proposal of virtual food texture by electric muscle stimulation

We propose a novel method to present virtual food texture by using electrical muscle stimulation to the masseter muscle. In this paper, we describe our proposal system; “Electric Food Texture System” consisting of “bite detection part”, “food texture database”, and “electric stimulation part”. We used a photoreflector to measure motion of user's lower jaw for “bite detection”, electromyography sensors to measure food texture for “food texture database”, and a medical electrical stimulator for “electric stimulation”. We conducted some preliminary studies to verify the feasibility of our proposed method. The results suggest that the photoreflector can detect bite, peak amplitude and pulse width of EMG are useful to represent food texture, and users feel hardness and elasticity of virtual food texture by presenting EMS to the masseter muscle. Our contribution is to show the system and investigate the feasibility to present various food texture for improving dining experience.