Narrative: The project involves designing and building a machine that will simulate human "soft" mechanical sensing tissues (such as the tongue or fingers which normally come in contact with food) by cushioning machine parts. This device would perform textural evaluations of foods and using a computer, the results could be correlated to determine optimum rheological food characteristics for future food fabrication technology. In the past such machines have consisted of hard parts and the PI's novel concept is to redesign these machines to better reflect real sensing tissues.
