In response to the problems of obesity, researchers at the University of Tokyo have recently developed an augmented reality system to increase or decrease the size of food in order to fool our appetite. Equipped with a headset, the user will be able to see the food he or she is trying to increase or decrease in size in real time, without his or her own hand being deformed by the system.
The studies of these researchers show once again that the more you feel you have eaten a large amount of food, the less hungry you are. Conversely, the smaller the amount of food you feel you have eaten, the hungrier you will be. So there is a real link between sight and the feeling of hunger. Appetite therefore depends, in part, on how the food appears.
"Our system retrieves the video stream from the user and applies a distortion algorithm. Working only on a blue background, we hope to make it usable at home to apply this transformation to all kinds of foods. Our goal is to encourage individuals to make healthier food choices. This is done by fattening up high calorie foods.
Currently, we're testing 12 subjects to see whether or not the size of a food can actually affect the amount consumed. And indeed, we have determined that if the size of a food was increased 1.5 times, the amount consumed decreased by about 10%. Conversely, when the size of a food was reduced by two-thirds, the amount consumed increased by 15%. »
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Although the influence of this system on the propensity to eat healthy foods may leave us doubtful, the distortion algorithm is nonetheless interesting.
This technology consists of a helmet with a camera and software. Once this helmet is on the head, the system can, in real time, make the amount of food larger than it actually is. Even stronger, the technology is able to change in real time not only the size of a cookie but also to deform the hand holding it while keeping the real proportions of the hand for a perfect illusion. The deformation algorithm allows the shape of the hand to be altered to match the virtually increased size of the cookie.
In the future, augmented reality could therefore make it possible to develop new treatments for hyperphagia and other eating disorders.
