SCIENCE & WINE - FROM JAPAN, A ROBOT CAPABLE OF DISTINGUISHING THE SUBSTANCES THAT MAKE UP A WINE… THE ARTIFICIAL TASTER DEVELOPED BY NEC SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES AND MIE UNIVERSITY

It seems like science fiction, but it’s now reality. A recent report in “New Scientist” magazine revealed that a sophisticated robot capable of distinguishing at least thirty different varieties of wine is about to arrive on the market. And the scientists who invented it in the Japanese laboratories of NEC System Technologies and Mie University are sure that the robot of the “optical tongue-robot” class has great potential for advances. The machine, named “Wine-bot”, is about as big as a double magnum and is composed of a microcomputer and an optical sensor.
By dropping just 5 milliliters of wine into the appropriate container, in just a few seconds, the game is done. The robot emits a series of infrared rays that identify within a few seconds the wavelengths of light that the sample absorbs, thus classifying the specific organoleptic components of the wine. Will these scientists be able to store all of the chemical, biochemical and enological information in the robot’s memory necessary to recognize all of the thousands of types of wine that are now on the market? Will it be capable to distinguish every single wine from anywhere in the world? We’ll soon see.