A new Japanese tasting robot can tell good wine from bad wine and camembert from Gouda.

Developed by NEC System Technologies and Mie University, the sommelier bot uses its "taste" sensor to analyze the major components—down to the molecule—via spectrum-analysis of food to figure out what it is. So it's taste by identification (ingredients matched up with a database of what ingredients make which foods). This is quite unlike human taste which relies on taste buds/cells to identify sweet, sour, saltiness, bitterness and unique "tastes" in between.

The robot can also detect if sugar or fat is present in the food, and the quantity of each. From the NEC Web site: "When a new food is introduced to the robot, it will compare that food's absorption spectrum against the ones the robot has already cataloged and determine which ones are comparable to the food that has just been introduced."

The robot taste technology is also far from infallible. The AP reports that the robot  "tasted" one reporter and identified him as prosciutto (a sort of cured, spicy Italian ham). Well, perhaps that does describe one or two journalists I know.

[via Mainichi News]

Thanks to Editor, Reviews Lance Ulanoff for this post!