A Proposal of Food Texture Display by Jamming

We propose a novel system that displays various food textures by using jamming, a physical process by which particles become rigid when the density is increased. We utilize it as a simple and effective method to control the hardnesses and shapes of materials chewed in the mouth. We implemented a prototype of a pneumatic jamming system to verify the feasibility of adapting jamming for food texture displays. Experiment results confirmed that the prototype provides various hardnesses perceived in the mouth. Feedback comments from experiment participants indicated that the provided range of hardness was that between marshmallow softness and sherbet hardness.