You can't eat the virtual steak, but a Japanese simulator makes the cooking experience feel real enough by putting a frying pan in your hands.
The cooking simulator made by the Tokyo Institute of Technology puts a frying pan and the handle of a spatula in trainees' hands, according to DigInfo TV. A web of cords connected to both the pan and spatula can create the changing resistance and weight of the steak and other ingredients sliding around inside the pan.
Trainees look down at the pan through a transparent display to see the virtual food — meat or vegetables that change color as the simulator calculates the heat transfer.
Similar augmented reality technology has also begun creeping into kitchens. Japanese researchers at Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan put together a demo kitchen with ceiling projectors capable of showing trainee cooks where to cut meat or vegetables.
Is this cheaper than practicing with real steak? That may depend upon the gadget's final price tag.
Source: DigInfo TV
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