(2011) proposed MetaCookie+, a pseudo-gustatory system that uses an augmented reality head-mounted display (AR HMD) to overlay both visual and olfactory information on real cookies to observe taste alterations. Recently, there has been an increasing trend of using relatively newer interactive technologies to enhance or modify taste perception ( Gallace et al., 2012 Moser and Tscheligi, 2013 Nishizawa et al., 2016 Arnold, 2017 Kerruish, 2019 Halabi and Saleh, 2021). Extrinsic colors are those external to the food, including the influence of color itself ( Koch and Koch, 2003 Wan et al., 2014), the color of the container (like the cup or the bowl) ( Harrar et al., 2011 Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence, 2012 Spence and Velasco, 2018 Sugimori and Kawasaki, 2022), and the color of the environment ( Oberfeld et al., 2009).

et al., 1992 Charles et al., 2010 Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2016). Intrinsic colors are those features of the food itself, including the color of the food ( Maga, 1974 Johnson and Clydesdale, 1982 Clydesdale. Existing research has provided evidence that color is an intrinsic and extrinsic visual stimulus influencing taste. Prior studies have explored how taste perception can be formed with other senses via CMC ( Knöferle and Spence, 2012 Kerruish, 2019 Halabi and Saleh, 2021). Basic taste perceptions include sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami 1 ( Keast and Breslin, 2003). Taste is one of the most common sensations that people experience daily. Our results provide new insights into the cross-modal correspondence effect on ambient color and taste perception not found in prior work in VR scenarios.Ĭross-modal correspondence (CMC) is the interaction among various senses, where people map sensations in one sensory modality onto other modalities in a consistent manner ( Spence, 2011). Differences in the color-taste association and environment liking were also observed in the ambient color conditions. Results showed that the pink ambient color significantly increased the sweetness ratings. In Experiment 2, participants tasted black tea (as the neutral drink), after being exposed to eight different virtual environments with different ambient colors. Comfortable light intensity for each ambient color was obtained and color recognition problems were observed. In Experiment 1, participants adjusted the ambient light with different cross-modal-related colors in the immersive environments and reported their scaling of the Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire (VRSQ). To this end, we designed and conducted two experiments to investigate whether and how taste-congruent ambient colors in VR influence taste perception measured by four aspects: 1) taste ratings of a neutral drink 2) taste association with virtual environments 3) associated scenarios when immersed in these virtual environments and 4) participants’ liking of these environments.

This research explores the cross-modal correspondence effect of ambient color on people’s taste perception in virtual reality (VR).

3School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.

2Department of Computing, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China.

1Division of Integrative Systems and Design, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Zhen Wu 1 † Rongkai Shi 2 † Ziming Li 2 Mengqi Jiang 3 † Yue Li 2 Lingyun Yu 2 Hai-Ning Liang 2*

Ac unity a dash of poison