The present study investigates the role of virtual contextual information, including affective information, in gustatory perception of crisps (fried potato chips). In a first preliminary experiment, we evaluated the association among three augmented reality (AR) animations (a pear-like character jumping a rope, a black-and-white cartoon character, a Venus flytrap carnivorous plant) and a different series of feelings and emotional states (i.e., cheerfulness, sadness, anger, aggressiveness, fear, anxiety, disgust, surprise, shame, tiredness, boredom). In a second experiment, the participants evaluated the gustatory perception of three different kinds of chips on several dimensions (e.g., pleasantness, crispiness, healthiness, purchase intention) by using visual analog scales. The chips were presented within an AR environment where the animations evaluated in Experiment 1 were placed close to the serving plate. The results of our study demonstrated that the chips tasted with the pear-like character animation (categorized as cheerful in Experiment 1) were judged as healthier than those tasted with black-and-white (i.e., sad) and Venus flytrap character animations (i.e., aggressive). Moreover, people's purchase intentions were higher with the pear-like character animation, as compared with the black-and-white character animation. These results showed that the context created by AR can affect participants’ food perception across several dimensions.

The suggestion that the body surface might be used as an additional means of presenting information to human-machine operators has been around in the literature for nearly 50 years. Although recent technological advances have made the possibility of using the body as a receptive surface much more realistic, the fundamental limitations on the human information processing of tactile stimuli presented across the body surface are, however, still largely unknown. This literature review provides an overview of studies that have attempted to use vibrotactile interfaces to convey information to human operators. The importance of investigating any possible central cognitive limitations (i.e., rather than the peripheral limitations, such as related to sensory masking, that were typically addressed in earlier research) on tactile processing for the most effective design of body interfaces is highlighted. The applicability of the constraints emerging from studies of tactile processing under conditions of unisensory (i.e., purely tactile) stimulus presentation, to more ecologically valid conditions of multisensory stimulation, is also discussed. Finally, the results obtained from recent studies of tactile information processing under conditions of multisensory stimulation are described, and their implications for haptic/tactile interface design elucidated.