你的好友发来一杯假的柠檬水，尝尝不?

Remember how far-fetched lifelike robots and self-driving cars used to sound? Now, they're a reality. And thanks to new research, there's another seemingly improbable technology that's come to life: teleporting a drink. Earlier this month, researchers out of the National University of Singapore and Georgia Institute of Technology presented a method for creating "virtual lemonade."

还记得人工智能和自动驾驶汽车曾经听起来有多遥远吗？而如今它们都成为了现实。多亏了一项新的研究，另外一种看似不可思议的技术诞生了：远程传送饮料。本月早些时候，新加坡国立大学和佐治亚理工学院的研究人员提出了一种创造“虚拟柠檬水”的方法。

Let's say you can't make it to your cousin's summer shindig, but Granny's going to be there making her beloved lemonade. No worries. Using the researchers' method, Granny could send you some of the beverage simply by mounting and submerging an RGB color sensor and pH sensor in a glass of her lemonade. (Color affects the drinker's flavor perceptions, and pH affects the drink's acidity.) The "taste messaging" would then occur via Bluetooth communication, when a control module sends the color and sourness information to a custom tumbler you'll soon be sipping Granny's refreshing lemonade out of.

假设你无法参加表妹的夏季聚会，但你的外婆又会在聚会上制作她最拿手的柠檬水。不用担心，只要外婆依照研究人员的办法，在她制作的一杯柠檬水中安装一个 RGB颜色传感器和一个 pH 传感器（颜色会影响饮酒者的味觉感知，pH值影响饮料的酸度），就可以将柠檬水传送给你。一个控制模件会通过蓝牙通信将颜色信息和酸度信息发送到一个定制玻璃杯上，让你很快品尝到外婆制作的清爽柠檬水。

But you, the virtual lemonade receiver, are actually drinking a cup full of plain H2O. The special tumbler has a rim of silver electrodes that serve as a sourness simulator, giving off 800-Hz pulses to tempt your taste buds. An LED (light-emitting diode) device at the bottom of the tumbler gives off a mini light show by diffusing color through the water. You'll only be drinking water, but you'll experience simulated lemonade flavors. So, mind over matter?

但实际上，你喝的是一杯白水。这种特殊的玻璃杯有一圈银电极充当酸性模拟器，该电极会发出800赫兹的脉冲来冲击你的味蕾。玻璃杯底部的 LED装置上演一场微型灯光秀，让颜色在水中扩散。你喝到的只是水，但会尝到模拟的柠檬水味道。这就叫心胜于物？

Researchers gave 12 different real and virtual lemonades to 13 participants. The team used tasteless food coloring agents to make the real lemonades green, cloudy and yellow, and LED lights to color the virtual lemonades similarly.

研究人员给13名参与者12种不同的柠檬水（既有真的，也有虚拟的）。研究小组使用无味食物着色剂让真正的柠檬水变成绿色、浑浊和黄色，他们也用LED 灯让虚拟柠檬水变成相似的颜色。

Participants reported the real lemonade tasted sourer than the virtual. But overall, there were no statistically significant differences in their perceptions of real and virtual flavors, so teleporting lemonade could turn out to be a sweet deal. The team hopes this study leads to further analyses, like extending virtual flavor technologies for multisensory interactions like toasting drinks, or even sharing digital signatures of beverages stored in a virtual cloud.

参与者反馈，真正的柠檬水比虚拟的柠檬水更酸一点。但总的来说，数据统计显示，他们对真正的柠檬水和虚拟柠檬水的感受没有显著区别。结果证明，远程传送柠檬水确实可行。研究小组希望这项研究能更进一步，将这种虚拟味觉技术扩展到多感官交互，比如敬酒，甚至还可以分享存储在云盘里的虚拟饮料数据。