Ching-Yi Tsai

Garnish into Thin Air

UIST '22 STUDENT INNOVATION CONTEST | BEST SIC AWARD (PEOPLES' CHOICE) | 29 OCT 2022

Traditional food presentation is 2D and static, how about 3D, dynamic plating?

Intro

The human sense of taste is significantly influenced by their visual perception. Specifically, when food is presented in a more appealing manner, people enjoy it more.

Such effect has been extensively utilized in modern days food presentation. A common food presentation technique is embodying pleasing imagery into the dish, such as sculptural vegetable with the shape of cute animals or artistic sketches of sauces. Beyond these static presentations, in recent TV advertisements and food photography, people have brought in dynamic elements such as an exploded view of hamburgers floating on the plate or milk splashes with cornflakes in the air. However, these effects require physical support (e.g., robotic arms or toothpaste) and extra post-editing, hindering their presence on guests’ dining plates. In this project, we bring garnish into thin air. We present the use of acoustic levitation to make garnishing dynamic and interactive. By introducing levitation to the art of plating and garnishing, we extend the food presentation from 2.5D (i.e., stacking on the plate) to 3D (mid-air), allowing chefs and food presenters to design a dish with a richer and more complex composition.

Concept Development

We initially aimed for garnishing with complex compositions, including levitating multiple types of edibles at once and complex mechanisms, such as those triggered by falling droplets. These include the following two sketched examples: (1) The Floral Party and (2) The Winter Twig.

Initial Concept — Figure: Two demonstrations of our initial concept: (1) The Floral Party, (A) a glass of cocktail with flower garnish, which features floating pigment droplets, dried petals, and a silk flower. (B) As a guest picks up the glass, the pigments dye the silk flower, and dried petals sprinkle into the glass to add flavor to the drink. ; and (2) The Winter Twig, (C) a chocolate cake decorated with mid-air sugar dusting and cranberry jam droplets above. (D) As a guest approaches the plate, sugar and jam drizzle onto the plate, “UIST” magically strokes on the chocolate powder, and a rice-paper bird lands on the chocolate twig.

To ensure quick decorating for the live demo at UIST 2022, we turned to the following repertoire, demonstrating only one levitating edible and technique at a time.

Final Repertoire — Figure: Final garnished design, including Stargazy Cake, Floating Sparkle Cocktail, and AeroBead Macaron.

System Implementation

To build our “levitation tray,” I utilized the open-sourced OpenMPD software system with two 12 x 13 transducer arrays, as well as my customized laser-cut acrylic support.