This delivery system levitates food and drinks straight to your mouth

Floating food could be the next culinary craze thanks to a new invention that levitates, transports and delivers food and drink directly onto your tongue.

Scientists at the University of Sussex have, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, created a contactless food-delivery system that uses ultrasound to float taste sensations from the kitchen to the mouth.

The TastyFloats system promises “new culinary experiences” as well as potential applications in gaming, virtual reality and cinema, according to the research team.

Early findings show that levitated food delivers more intense flavours for the tastes that have been experimented with so far – sweet, bitter, and umami.

The technology uses low-cost ultrasonic transducers to form a standing wave of ultrasound. The waves are manipulated in such a way that they act as ‘acoustic holograms’, creating invisible shapes that trap the object in place in mid-air. By changing these patterns, the food can be carried along on the wave and delivered to a precise location.


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