A Multisensory Approach for the Design of Food and Drink Enhancing Sonic Systems

Daily eating and drinking experiences are composed of multiple, interrelated, sensory inputs. However, when it comes to human-food interaction design (HFI), certain senses have received more attention than others. Here, we focus on audition, a sense that has received limited attention in such context. In particular, we highlight the role of food/drink-related eating sounds, as a potential input for human-food interaction design. We review some of the few systems that have been built on such sounds within food and drink contexts. We also discuss how the systematic connections that exist between the senses may provide some guidelines for the integration of eating sounds in HFI design. Finally, we present some key prospects that we foresee for research in technology design in HFI.