Simplification of olfactory stimuli in pseudo-gustatory displays

In this paper, we propose a technique that simplifies pseudo-gustatory systems by using the cross-modal effect between vision and olfaction to change only the visual and olfactory stimuli without altering the ingredients of the food. Conventional pseudo-gustatory simulations require one olfactory stimulus for each flavor. In contrast, we hypothesize that the cross-modal effect between vision and olfaction in a pseudo-gustatory presentation can be utilized to reduce the required number of olfactory stimuli, and verify this hypothesis using a pseudo-gustatory display with our proposed method. This pseudo-gustatory display uses the visual-olfactory cross-modal effect and the key scent components decided on the basis of similarity analysis of olfactory perception. We also investigate how users perceive the taste of a drink under various visual and olfactory conditions, both with and without the visual-olfactory interactions. Our results indicate that the cross-modal effect between vision and olfaction can effectively simplify pseudo-gustatory simulations.