Electric Fork Simulates a Salty Flavor By Shocking Your Tongue (med.news.am)

An anonymous reader writes: It's common knowledge that excess sodium can be detrimental to one's health. So researchers in Japan have built a prototype electric fork that uses electrical stimulation to stimulate the taste of salt. The battery-powered fork was engineered and designed at the University of Tokyo's Rekimoto Lab. It features a conductive handle that completes a circuit when the tines make contact with a diner's tongue, electrically stimulating their taste buds. The prototype fork, which was built from just $18 worth of electronics, creates a sensation of both salty and sour, and has adjustable levels of stimulation.

Comments

It is also known..

[thesupraman]

That not enough sodium in your diet can be detrimental to one's health.
And more importantly, not enough Iodine, depending on location, can be pretty bad also.

Bring on the Iodised salt!

Come on people, is it that complicated? everything in moderation, and a well rounded and balanced diet?

Of course, if they can invent a Chocolate fork... I suspect they will do well.

Re:It is also known..

[geekmux]

That not enough sodium in your diet can be detrimental to one's health. And more importantly, not enough Iodine, depending on location, can be pretty bad also.

Bring on the Iodised salt!

Come on people, is it that complicated? everything in moderation, and a well rounded and balanced diet?

Walk into any building that sells food on this planet and ask where the low-sodium-soy-free-non-MSG-no-additives-no-preservatives-no-growth-hormones-no-HFCS isle is. Is it that complicated for you to grasp the concept that "people" didn't choose to put all this shit into what manufacturers like to call "food" today?

Everything in moderation? Yeah, I agree. Now let me know when the food processing industry is going to "moderate" their flavor of capitalism that caused the creation of an electric fork.

Re:It is also known..

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't going to happen until you (the consumer) start paying for it.

Raising livestock without antibiotics and anabolic steroids isn't profitable;
Raising produce without pesticides isn't profitable;
Getting livestock or produce into a consumers hands without preservatives isn't profitable;
Selling a product that hasn't been pumped full of flavor enhancers and additives to meet consumer expectations isn't profitable;

Running a business without turning a profit isn't... ?

Re:It is also known..

[GrumpySteen]

Walk into any building that sells food on this planet and ask where the low-sodium-soy-free-non-MSG-no-additives-no-preservatives-no-growth-hormones-no-HFCS isle is.

You don't even have to ask. Just use some common sense.

Start with the fresh produce department, where the bulk of what you should be eating should be coming from anyway.

Rice of all sorts, quinoa, wheat, oats and other grains are also readily available and contain none of the things you listed, so you can get some variety in your carbohydrates if you're tired of potatoes and yams.

For protein, most stores will have at least half a dozen different types of dried beans. If you don't want to eat a vegetarian diet, it's not hard to find meat and eggs produced without growth hormones, antibiotics and so forth.

In other words, the only reason you're stuck with all the stuff you've listed in your food is because you're choosing to buy products that contain all that stuff. Buy the ingredients and cook your own food and you get to choose what goes into it.

Re:It is also known..

[mrchaotica]

Raw ingredients don't have "manufacturers." If you think eating healthy means buying the hipster organic processed food, you're doing it wrong.

Re:It is also known..

[drinkypoo]

Raw ingredients don't have "manufacturers."

Outside the produce aisle, there are nearly zero unprocessed foods in a supermarket. Nearly all foods get some kind of processing. Chicken is carved up and usually injected with something. Beef is aged, albeit usually not long enough. Pork is about the least processed food you will find. Everything else has had something done to it.

Re:It is also known..

[guruevi]

The problem is that most of these additives are actually not at all dangerous to people either short or long term. It's the health food industry that wants you to be scared of it but just like homeopathy which you'll find in the same isles there is no evidence to it. Yes, lots of HFCS will cause diabetes but so will the raw cane sugar in similar amounts. A lot of these "additives" are equally found in vegetables and fruits occurring naturally, anyone who is scared of sugar-replacers like aspartame should never eat strawberries that have aspartame in much higher dosages. Red food colorings are oh-so unnatural ground up beetles or beet juice.

Re:It is also known..

[willy_me]

On average they outlive just about everyone else on the planet.

That is what I also thought - but it is BS. What was actually happening is people were not reporting when their elderly relatives passed on. The reason - to continue collecting old-age pension checks. This typically occurred in the more rural mountain communities leading to the assumption that a rural mountain life was a healthy one. Turns out this is not true. And now that the government is aware of the problem it gets abused far less and the statistics are being corrected.

Re:It is also known..

[rubycodez]

wrong, it is permissible (in the USA) to have that "raw meat" soaking in preservatives for transport. I researched the subject because one of the preservatives, sodium nitrite, makes my feet swell up.

your butchered meat may well have preservatives in it.

Re:What are the chances

[Thanshin]

chances of this device electrocuting you?

Probably 0, because the necessary energy would require a larger storage volume than a fork's handle.

Re:Do you really need a R&D lab for this ?!?

[elerran]

when I was a kid I wore braces. I also tested batteries with my tongue. One day I decided to connect a 9V battery (the one with the poles side by side) with my braces, to see what will happen. One pole on the upper side, the other on the bottom. There was a big shock, my field of vision became bright white for a split second, and I never tested batteries with any part of my face ever again.

Re:What are the chances

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I suspect that you could squeeze enough energy into that volume to electrocute someone; but humans are reasonably resistive(even if you accidentally stabbed yourself with the fork, it looks like there is an electrical contact on the handle, so it has to pass at least one layer of skin), so unless some sort of insane enthusiasm for liability led them to design the thing to deliver fairly high voltage at at least moderately punchy current, it would still be harmless.

It doesn't actually take much energy, at all, to kick some unlucky sucker's heart into a life threatening abnormal state; but you have to deliver that very modest jolt to the correct place; and doing that is a matter of either nontrivial brute force or very bad luck.

Re:What are the chances

[GrumpySteen]

ahem

Full Definition of electrocute
        transitive verb
      1 : to execute (a criminal) by electricity
      2 : to kill by electric shock

Notice that the definition of electrocute involves dying? When you say "mild electrocution", you're saying "mildly dead", which doesn't really make a lot of sense.

You're welcome to use the word as you want, of course (that's one of the fundamental things that makes English a living language) but when someone else is using the word, you need to be aware of the dictionary meaning of the word or communication suffers.

That having been said, electricity takes the path of least resistance. The only way the path between the tines of the fork will be through your heart or the nerves that drive your heart will be if the fork has been stabbed into your heart or your spine or, I suppose, just the right bit of your brain. In all three cases, you have much bigger and more lethal problems than the minuscule amount of current between the tines of the fork.

Common Knowledge is wrong

[darthsilun]

ISTR hearing about new research showing that the amount of salt in your diet has little to no effect on coronary heart disease.

While we're on the subject, the amount of fat in your diet has been shown to have no effect on blood cholesterol levels.

Not that I'm suggesting you consume salt by the bucketful or anything.

Re:Common Knowledge is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Very much this.

The links between salt consumption and disease is only apparent in a small number of people that seem to have some sensitivity to salt.
These people have an underlying condition(s) that has remained un-diagnosed for decades because of a horribly flawed STUDY (one, ONE!) that was never re-tested until recently, where it was ripped apart.

I've known people to actually eat salt in massive amounts and he is 86 this year.
No heart issues. No high blood pressure.
He had a minor stroke. Want to know why? He had a bad habit of sleeping on a tough leather couch. That would make even the fittest people have a stroke, regardless of sodium amount.
Deep vein thrombosis is a huge problem with frequent travellers, which is why you should always get some exercise. Even doing some in-seat exercises will help prevent it. The things you can do to prevent such simple blood clots are easy.

Yet there are people that go nuts over even minor amounts of salt that it is almost likely the stress and anxiety OVER salt itself that is causing the high blood pressure. (it isn't entirely the case though)
This device will certainly help some people out with intolerance to it, at least until they figure out the root cause of it. (which could just be salt, there are people with intolerances to water on skin!)
Whatever it is, the fact it has remained unnamed for decades pisses me off more than the fact that salt was being blamed for it!

This is freakin' cool

[PPalmgren]

There's a lot of cynics here, but this kind of thing is great for someone who needs sodium regulation, especially the elderly. Simulated taste could also help a lot of people work towards a healthier lifestyle.

Re:What are the chances

[tsqr]

When you say "mild electrocution", you're saying "mildly dead", which doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Unless you're watching Princess Bride, that is.

Re:What are the chances

[arth1]

Unless you're watching Princess Bride, that is.

This is slashdot. We all watch The Princess Bride.

Re: What are the chances

[Anonymous Coward]

I think most of the morons on slashdot are of the non-fucking variety...

Salty Fork?

[RivenAleem]

Would this not just make the fork taste salty? Once the food is deposited and you start chewing, the salty flavour will be gone and your food will feel like it needs salt.

Re:What are the chances

[tsqr]

Unless you're watching Princess Bride, that is.

This is slashdot. We all watch The Princess Bride.

Inconceivable!

Re:What are the chances

[guruevi]

To kill someone using electricity you need to deliver certain amounts of energy in a short time (think Coulombs not Volts/Amps). There is also a range for which it works, too little and nothing happens, too much and you're just clamping someone's heart after which they likely recover (although you could've caused severe burn and internal organ damage).

You could potentially kill someone based off a battery based device but you need to modify the signal quite a bit.

Re:What are the chances

[ComputerGeek01]

Look up super capacitors.

Argh! Supercapacitors are special because of their resistance to leakage and a high energy density. They actually have a lower voltage so they discharge slower, are heavier AND more expensive than regular electrolytic or ceramic capacitors making them exactly the WRONG choice for the purpose of electrocuting someone based on every possible consideration. What you want is an electrolytic capacitor in series with the power supply and a pull-up resistor set in parallel with the resistor going to ground. Go back to the eighth grade you AC retard!

Re: What are the chances

[JazzLad]

"proofread", one word, jackass.

Comma goes inside the quotation marks.

Re: What are the chances

[RoccamOccam]

While we're on the subject, this is one rule that needs to go away. I see quotes (particularly as used above) as denoting a specific reference. If the reference didn't include the punctuation (or even the intonation, such as in a question), then the added punctuation shouldn't appear inside of the quotes.

Re:What are the chances

[LynnwoodRooster]

Uh, that's actually by design. It's supposed to shock you to simulate salt/sour sensations. Without shocking you, it doesn't work.

Re:What are the chances

[omnichad]

you DC retard!

FTFY

Re:Do you really need a R&D lab for this ?!?

[Stinky Cheese Man]

I used to take a small battery and a step-up transformer and connect the high-voltage side to my little brother's funny bone and amuse myself by making his arm jump. He went on to a successful career in electronics. And I? Here I am posting on Slashdot.

Re: What are the chances

[dcooper_db9]

It's not for lack of trying. I've seen all variations on slashdot, from top to bottom. Fuck you. Fuck me. Fuck all of you. Fuck off. Fuck that. Nobody ever seems to respond agreeably. I've heard that's fucked up but I don't know who the fucker was. I've also heard that we're all fucked in the end. All I can say is that I have no fucking clue.