the future

Future Arrives As IBM Unveils Its Portable ‘E-Tongue’ Technology

The future is here, chapter 437: Over the holiday weekend, IBM released a video for a futuristic technology, called Hypertaste, that can quickly identify liquids you should not be drinking. Dubbed “an AI-assisted e-tongue” by the company, it’s a portable device that can do this in a mere minute and transfers data to a mobile app. The many uses are obvious, from determining water quality to finding out if alcohol is counterfeit. (It’s been theorized that counterfeit or bootleg booze is the reason for a string of mysterious deaths of American tourists in the Dominican Republic.) The technology allows these tests to be done rapidly and on the spot, whereas otherwise it’d require sending the liquid to a laboratory for testing. Master sommeliers, however, should not be worried — yet: IBM has, as of now, not developed e-tongue technology that can, in a blind taste, perfectly determine grape varietals and vintages.

Future Arrives As IBM Unveils Its ‘E-Tongue’ Technology