A loss of taste is more than just an impairment exclusive to the dinner table. It's a loss of personal identity and a way of connecting with the world.

Introducing Flavor Sense, a technology that helps people with impaired taste experience flavor through vibration. 

Designed for COVID-19 survivors, chemo patients, the elderly and others, Flavor Sense uses a microchip and five flavor sensors to read and display food’s flavor information. 

Before eating, users insert the microchip in their mouth and place the five flavor sensors (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami) on their body. While eating, the microchip reads and sends the food’s flavor data to the sensors, which vibrate in accordance to the flavor's intensity.

For this project, the team wanted to highlight one of the most difficult side-effects of COVID-19: experiencing a sudden loss of taste. Flavor Sense explores how we might develop technologies that help people feel a sense of curiosity and joy as they eat.