This cooking simulator, being developed by a research group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, features a force feedback fry pan and spatula to accurately recreate the sense of cooking.

This simulator calculates the heat transfer from the pan to the meat or vegetables that are being cooked, and displays the visible changes caused by heating. The fry pan interface allows for three dimensional input, and as well as moving the fry pan to aid the cooking process, the simulator can feed back the weight of ingredients combined with the tactile feeling of the ingredients cooking.

“When you move the frying pan, the actual movement is input, and you can feel the ingredients through the pan. Also, the upper part of the system is a screen. When you look into the pan, you can see what’s in it through a half-mirror. So this simulator lets you experience looking into the frying pan while you hold it.”

“This technology combines a rigid-body physics engine library and a heat conduction simulator. The heat conduction state changes in line with the amount of physical contact, and the simulation is achieved by combining them.”

“This system also calculates how moisture evaporates or flows as the temperature rises. It shows how protein changes color from red to brown, or how vegetables turn dark, by synthesizing textures.”

“We’d like to develop this system further, so it’s helpful in actual cooking at home. It could help you make the meat you’re cooking taste even better. If it could be linked to a system that tells you, “In five minutes, your food will look like this, and in ten minutes, it will look like this. Which would you prefer?”, so this system could really help with cooking.”

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