UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, TOKYO, JAPAN. Goggles that incorporate computer technology and augmented reality that can fool the brain in thinking that a small portion of food is big or that a simple biscuit can be perceived as an enticing chocolate cookie. This is an alternative solution to people who have weight issues and have weak will power in controlling their food intake.

Professor Michitaka Hirose was inspired on how computer technology can be used in deceiving the human mind. Since the concept of reality is strongly established in a human’s mind, the use of virtual reality can be applied in fooling various senses of humans.

The goggles have mounted cameras that send images to a computer. The images are processed by magnifying the the size of a cookie. The hand of the wearer of the goggles still retains the original size of his or her hand that is holding the cookie. Based on the conducted experiments, volunteers almost consumed 10% less the original size of the biscuit that were 50% magnified. They ate 15 percent more when cookies were manipulated to look two-thirds of their real size.

Hirose’s team also developed a “meta cookie” that makes of a headgear that incorporates the scent of bottles and visual tricks that will deceive the wearer that he or she is only eating a plain and bland biscuit. In the future, users of the goggle can set their favorite taste (strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, etc.). Based on their experiments, 80% of their volunteers were deceived. More studies will be developed to really see a significant weight loss among the participants.