Futuristic Diet: The Plate of Food Wirelessly Talks to Your Brain

Soon it will be the new year again, and we all know what happens on January 1st. Millions of people around the world set a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. It’s not an easy task. What if you could slap a microchip on your head so your plate of food could wirelessly communicate with your brain? It’s called Mimic, and it is a futuristic diet that plays with your mind.

If you read my articles often, you know I’m a big fan of the annual Electrolux Design Lab competition for design and technology students. The futuristic creations entered in that competition inspire innovators everywhere, and I write about them every year.

This year, one of the finalists is a diet concept called “Set to Mimic.” The description on YouTube describes it best:

Set to Mimic is a set of smart kitchenware that recreates tastes and smells of your food to your preference. By placing a noninvasive transparent gel patch with a microchip on your head, the plate and glass communicates wirelessly with your brain, to make you experience a taste or smell from the past by tapping into your memory. That way, you can eat a carrot but have the impression that you’re eating an ice cream or a steak, which makes it easier to lead a healthy life.

I have to warn you, if you watch the YouTube video below, it’s a little disturbing. The look on that kid’s face when the mother puts the microchip on his head is very alien-like. However, if you can get passed the creepy 30-second video and consider the concept itself, you’ll understand why it’s a finalist.

Mimic’s designer, Sorina Rasteanu, envisions a world where cauliflower tastes like potato chips and broccoli tastes like ice cream. It’s a dream diet for sure.

The idea is that you select the picture of the food you want to taste (i.e. ice cream, chocolate, cheeseburger, etc). Once you hit the button which displays the unhealthy food on the plate (or drinking glass) containing the healthy food, the plate or glass wirelessly communicates with the microchip on your head and connects with the memory you have of the unhealthy food you selected.

Then, as you eat the healthy food, your brain will make you think you’re eating the unhealthy food.

It all sounds great, but I have one question. If you select ice cream, for example, and then you eat green beans, the texture would be off. Ice cream isn’t crunchy. How does Mimic navigate around that challenge? I don’t know the answer. Regardless, this is definitely a high tech solution to weight loss and a very creative wearable tech concept. I know a lot of people who would love to try this kind of diet.